


The game of love

by Garessta



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Not Beta Read, The Love Polygon of Doom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garessta/pseuds/Garessta
Summary: He, who sits on the silver throne of his ancestors, who is blessed with the touch of the Moon and the ichor of the divine, the god-king of Tsukiake, has only two duties in his life: to rule his country wisely, and to not let his bloodline die. The second, of course, cannot be done without a woman; and that means that this task, in some ways, is no less complicated than the first one.And no amount of cold logic and indestructible confidence will save Sesshomaru with understanding that on his own skin. If anything, they will only make it worse.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/Sesshoumaru, InuYasha/Kikyou (InuYasha), Kagura/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), Rin/Sesshoumaru (InuYasha)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 15





	1. The winds of change

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to everyone who reads this. For understanding: the place where the story takes place is a made-up low-fantasy (if you don't know what that means, imagine Game of Thrones) setting, based on mix of asian things, european things, and just whatever things I found convenient. Everything important would be explained anyway, so don't worry.  
> For anyone who worries about the fate of my first fic: I still plan on continuing it, but I wish to finish this one first. Why? Because life of Sesshomaru and Kagome is a story that will only end with their deaths (and right now it is on convenient point for pausing and taking a break), while this story has an actual end. I also wish to use if to improve myself and finding more inspirations before returning to "The dog and the mess".  
> Either way, enjoy!  
> P.S. And if you are a beta and want to help me with beta-reading this fic, please write to me!

That day began just as any other for Kagura – with routine and hard work that not many people thought about when imagining a witch's job. In that way, Kagura wasn't that much different from any other person who was living at the royal palace and worked for the god-king. Stablemen started their day with grooming and feeding horses, cooks with making breakfast, maids with sweeping and cleaning and Kagura with alchemy and paperwork.

She woke up at sunrise, just like always, to feed her mice and clean their cages. One of the specimens was showing clear signs of muscular deterioration that wasn't present just yesterday, and Kagura meticulously noted it in her work journal before moving on. It seemed that her latest attempt at lotion for quick hair growth was a failure, but Kagura intended to wait until the mouse died naturally before digging into its insides in search of what went wrong.

Then, Kagura needed to prepare potions that were ordered to her yesterday. Being the most famous and the only witch in the whole capital city gave her a lot of clients. She wasn't obliged to work for them, and the additional income, while nice, was unnecessary – her actual boss paid her more than enough – but it helped her reputation and status amongst nobles that went to her for their ointments and brews. It was also something that she was just taught to do.

Thankfully, though, making everything ready wasn't a time-consuming work. Kagura always made her most popular potions in large batches so she only needed to pour necessary things into vials, seal them and wait for her personal footboy to come to have everything delivered. As always, Kohaku came at eight sharp with breakfast for Kagura and her little sister and took the parcels with him on his way back.

Like usual, Kagura also gave him few coins as a bonus. She kind of liked the boy – he was punctual, polite and very calm for a kid. He was a younger brother of a woman who worked as a guard for a noble lady in the capital city, and aspired to one day became a knight. She knew that this money will one day help him to buy his own armor, horse and a sword – things that a simple page won't be able to afford that easily.

Then, Kagura waked Kanna up and two sisters ate their breakfast together. Afterwards, Kanna went off to stare blankly into space like usual, and Kagura began to write her daily addition to her weekly report. It consisted of details on progression of her research and the list of all her clients and what they bought or tried to buy from her. Some of them tried to buy their confidentiality. Kagura always chuckled to herself when writing down about these people. Naïve fools. They were forgetting who she was working for, and why.

But that didn’t take much time too. With all her daily duties done, rest of the Kagura's day was free to spend as she wished to, as long as she continued to work on her research projects. But this the witch, as usually, put off for after lunch. Before it, the time was hers to kill, at least as long as nobody will charge into her suit of rooms with some sort of outrageous demands to be fulfilled immediately. But most people were too scared to meet with Kagura personally and preferred to send servants with their requests. Kohaku will bring any such messages to her together with lunch and dinner, but for now there weren't any.

"What do you think I should do today, hm, Kanna?" Kagura asked her little sister from a couch with a pleased sigh. The girl, who still looked no older than ten despite being sixteen already, turned away from a window looked at her with her soulless eyes.

"I don't know," she replied in quiet voice, not making another move, still staying near a wall like some sort of furniture. Still, Kagura smiled – the fact that Kanna replied at all was a noticeable progress from how she was behaving just several years earlier.

"Well, what about a bit of flying around?" Kagura asked, eagerly waiting for Kanna's response, "Would you like that?"

"I don’t know," Kanna repeated. Kagura shook her head in exasperation, but didn't push it. Pulling a real opinion out of Kanna was harder than pulling a mountain out of its foundation, and today didn't seem like a day for it.

"Then let's go. You will benefit from some sunlight anyway," Kagura said, pulling a feather out of her hair. She opened the window of her bedroom wide and made a deep breath of fresh air. Kagura might had not be as strong in magic as her father was, but what she could do was awesome and she loved it despite the cursed origins of that power.

Nobody else, besides her and birds, could fly freely in the sky whenever they wanted to.

An hour of flying over settlements, plains, hills, forests, lakes, rivers and roads on her feather together with Kanna put Kagura in cheerful mood, even though her sister, as usual, didn't share it. And with joy and feeling of empowering freedom came hopes again, so when both women finally returned to their rooms with another hour from lunch to spare, Kagura did what she usually did when her hopes run high.

"Kanna, dear," she said, kneeling next to her apathetic sister, "Please, show me Sesshomaru."

"Yes, sister," Kanna replied, raising her mirror a little. Before it was showing only a room around and Kagura's face, but now the picture in it gleamed, shifted and changed into something completely different.

That was Kanna's gift. Just like Kagura, she inherited some magic from their father, which was the only reason he didn't threw her into a ditch right after birth – after all, her only value for him was the soul that he sold to demons even before either of his daughters was born. But now the asshole was dead, and Kagura was left to look after her sister and try to instill some independence in her – that is, when Kagura herself didn’t used Kanna's powers to spy on people.

On one particular person, to be specifically – at least most of the time. He was, right now, in the middle of his first half of a day routine, when he accepted petitioners in his throne room. Kagura let herself to be completely distracted by his majestic visage. As always at this time, he was clad in white robes with red embroidery, and a royally fluffy pelt was adjourning his shoulders. Silver silk of his hair was flowing freely on his chest and back, and created, together with his fair complexion, a picture of unearthly moon-like beauty that was worthy of divine blood that was flowing in his veins. So Kagura sighed and swooned covertly at her beloved god-king, completely ignoring everything else was going in the luxuriant throne room.

"Yea, you'd bet! Found a couple of nice girls for you, surely at least one of them will be enough to melt your icy heart. And both are real beauties, so if nothing else, you will have your pleasure with making an heir," a slightly muffled familiar voice that came from the mirror sharply tore Kagura out of her revering, "I've invited them to be guests in the palace on your behalf, their carriages should arrive a couple of days later. We also brought you some portraits for a sneak peek beforehand."

Reeling back from the sheer shock, Kagura snapped to the speaker of those words. From the point that Kanna's mirror was showing she could only see his back, but the mop of silver hair was unmistakable. There was only one person bearing a divine lineage in the palace besides the god-king himself, and it was his younger brother, Inuyasha.

He was also the only other person to speak with Sesshomaru so rudely.

"He was speaking of lady Rin and lady Kagome," a person next to him clarified in much more respectful tone. With her commonly dark hair she was harder to recognize, but Kagura knew the woman too. It was Kikyo, Inuyasha's wife, "Lady Rin is seventeen years old, and a youngest daughter of duke Juuta. She was raised to be a perfect lady and a wife, so you won't have any problems with her, your majesty. Lady Kagome is nineteen, and she is a princess of Higurashi kingdom. She is an oldest child, so she was raised to be a queen and is very headstrong. But, your majesty, a political alliance she could bring if you manage to arrange a marriage between the two of you would be very advantageous for our country."

As her heart felt deeper and deeper into her stomach, Kagura listened intently to the conversation. She wondered how she managed to miss something so important. Maybe she should've put more efforts in keeping up with palace's news even if most of them were useless gossip; not that she wasn't aware that one day Sesshomaru would need to marry _someone_ … She just didn't know that this day was going to happen so soon! And why there were two, not one woman in the picture?

When Sesshomaru dismissed his brother and sister-in-law and commanded to let the next petitioner in, Kagura realized that she won't learn anything new from here and stood up in hurry. Kanna raised her head up, trailing her blank gaze after her.

"Thank you, Kanna, you can turn it off," Kagura said. She took her fan out of her sleeve and nervously tapped it on her palm, "Damn, damn, damn, how did that happen?"

"I don't know," her sister supplied unhelpfully. If Kagura didn't know so well that Kanna didn't have any emotional capability in her, she'd swear she was mocking her. Instead, Kagura just groaned.

_"Now, Kagura, calm down,"_ she tried to reassure herself as she paced up and down the length of her bedroom, _"There are two women for some reason, and I didn't heard a herald shouting for everyone about royal wedding yet. I must learn more about what is going on before jumping to assumptions."_

"Kanna, I am leaving," Kagura declared and snapped her fan open decisively, "Do you remember what to do when I leave you alone?"

"Don't open door to anyone besides his majesty, don't go outside, and if anybody asks for you, tell them to wait," Kanna recited mechanically.

"Good girl," Kagura smiled and pat her sister on a head slightly, "I will be back soon. Don't get dusty without me."

She left at that, hurryingly flying away and towards her best source of information. While her back was just as straight as usual and her face was marred only with slight frown, Kagura's heart was filled with worry and shards of quickly crushing hopes. Not even currents of headwind, dashing speed and dizzying height of her flight were making Kagura feel any better.

The person she was looking for wasn't too hard to find at this time of day. Being an old man, he was, most probably still at his city house, nursing a hangover from evening of drinking – and this was exactly where she found him, groaning and moaning pitifully. Kagura was sure, that if she knew a receipt of a potion to cure ailments like that one, he would've paid her any money for it. Sadly for him, though, it was (just like an unfortunate ointment against baldness) still a work in progress.

"You are too old to drink this much, Myoga," Kagura greeted an old geezer with a slightly disgusted glance and switched to business, "I came to ask something."

"Lady Kagura! It's a pleasure to meet you, as always, but surely it can wait for more… ugh… convenient moment?" Myoga pleaded from his coach. Two pillows were keeping him half-upright, and a big cup of some liquid was keeping him half-alive.

"No, it can't," Kagura replied steely. Myoga was one of the very few nobles that called her 'lady' without irony even if they both knew each other too long for formalities, and it always felt like a balm on her ego. But right now she was too distressed to feel grateful or merciful, "Tell me what I want and I will leave as I came. Did his majesty really decided to marry?"

"Yes, yes. Is that why you are in such distress?" Myoga asked, suddenly much more alive-looking. He looked at Kagura with a wicked gleam in his eyes, and she pursed her lips in attempt to stave off the trepidation she felt. That love for gossip was one of the reasons she came to the old geezer for information, but now she also remembered that he knew her way too well to just answer without asking some questions of his own.

"That's not your business," Kagura snapped, turning her nose away sharply. Her eyes, though, were still on Myoga. She narrowed them and waited for a reply.

"Please, lady Kagura, don't be angry with your old friend. I was just curious, that's all," Myoga backed off quickly, "I am surprised you hadn't heard about it before, since Sesshomaru's future wedding is a talk of the whole city ever since he sent Inuyasha to find him some brides few weeks ago."

Kagura ignored a pang in her chest that appeared each time she thought about words "Sesshomaru" and "wedding" in one sentence and concentrated on her confusion. It gave her hope that maybe she will learn something that will make situation seem less dire.

"It's so like him to not search for his own wife personally," Kagura muttered before shaking her vigorously. She asked aloud, "Why would he need more than one bride?"

"Well, you see, they aren't actually brides. They are only contenders for the position of his majesty's wife. He invited them to the palace so he could determine which one will make a best spouse," Myoga explained with a grin, "I think it was pretty ingenious of his majesty to come up with such arrangement. Now he can thoroughly test _virtues_ of both of them before making a decision on whom to wed. I wish _I_ was so smart when I was looking for a wife…"

Kagura couldn't keep herself from cringing at Myoga's lustful blush. The old man was one of the biggest buyers of her potions of virility, and she had more than once thought that his perverseness was just too great to be able to fit in his small, frail body without a help of some magic.

All of that, though, was instantly forgotten when Kagura with some great relief realized that Sesshomaru's betrothal wasn't yet finalized. She had some hope, futile as it was. Or at least time to finally accept the fact that her infatuation was never meant to be.

"What if he dislikes all of them?" Kagura wondered carefully. Myoga shrugged and made a big gulp from his cup.

"Lady Kagura, you know his majesty just as well as I do. I am sure that in that case, he will just settle with the least annoying one," he replied, sagging on his couch, "He is not becoming any younger, after all. It's a time for him to start preserving his divine bloodline."

All of this was true, no matter how much Kagura wished it wasn't. For years she had waited, hoped against all hope… for what? That Sesshomaru will actually notice her as something more than a valued, indispensable servant? Make her his mistress? Well, he obviously wasn't intending to. With her heart heavier than before, Kagura expressed her grudging gratitude to Myoga, big him goodbye and flied away to her tower.

xxx

Next few days Kagura spent like in a dream – a sticky, never-ending nightmare. On a surface, it was all like usual – same routine of alchemy and paperwork, same evenings of research, tests and rereading her favorite books. But inside of her, Kagura's spirits were lower than ever before. Kanna, of course, didn't said anything about this, and there weren't many other people to comment on it, but she noticed how concerned Kohaku appeared when he came with usual trays of food; and how the food itself seemed to be more plentiful and tasty than usually.

That care (and delicious sweets) warmed Kagura's heart, but didn’t help any with her core problem. She still couldn't just accept Sesshomaru's upcoming marriage. It was one thing to pine after him from afar, watch him through Kanna's mirror with him being none the wiser; it would be another completely to do this with another woman near his side – the place where Kagura liked to imagine _herself_ , not anyone else, no matter how immature it was.

Some part of her wished to do her best and learn as much as possible about those bride candidates, but Kagura stopped herself before she could actually do it. Her despair was crushing her, telling her that she could change nothing anyway. Even after both women arrived to the palace, Kagura couldn't find in herself to at least go and look at them. And there was no one to pour out her sorrows at except for her footboy (who was too young to truly understand anyway) and her soulless sister. There was no advice that could come from her, but at least she a bit better listener than walls, so when keeping it all inside became just too hard for Kagura, she went to Kanna.

"I'm so stupid, little sister," Kagura groaned, hiding her face in her palms, "I'm so stupid, and now this bites me in my ass!"

Kanna didn't reply. Kagura didn't expect her to, and continued her lamenting more to herself than to anyone else.

"Sesshomaru always seemed so perfect. Everyone worship the ground he walks on, some of them even literally. It would've been so much easier if I was just one of them, if I praised him like a god and a king, nothing more. But no-o!" with that moan Kagura flopped down on a coach, as if trying to drown herself in softness of its pillows. Kanna, again, kept her silence, and for a while, Kagura did too.

She recalled how she had first met Sesshomaru. Both of them were only children then, and her father decided to bring Kagura to the palace and introduce her to the court, if only to flaunt for everyone the fact that he was allowed to. Sesshomaru was there with his parents, looking every bit a miniature copy of his father, from the markings of divine blood to the serious expression on his face. Kagura thought him to be a girl at first – in fact, she felt envious of his beauty.

They met again later, and many times. Naraku always encouraged any friendship between his daughter and Sesshomaru, and the young prince was often sent by his own father to fetch things from the warlock and give him orders in discretion. A few times they even played together – or more like, Kagura trailed after Sesshomaru like a stubborn puppy and provided her comments on everything he did, to his annoyance.

It was a tentative relationship, but Kagura would've considered them to be friends even if it was only a wishful thinking on her side. And then her puberty hit and suddenly Sesshomaru wasn't just pretty anymore. He was handsome, and Kagura was smitten. But it was also the time when Naraku started to fully teach her his magic, and she became too busy under his heavy hand to think about boys that much. And Sesshomaru himself too was learning how to inherit his father's place.

And when Naraku died and Kagura finally had freedom to act on her own desires without looking over her shoulder each and every time, she knew enough to realize that she was never meant to be with Sesshomaru in any other way than as a pawn in her father's plans. Sesshomaru himself seemed to be so far away from her then, and Kagura was sure that if he had ever thought of them as friends, he had forgot about it long ago. Since she had taken the position of a royal witch, he always send his retainer to deal with her; the rare times they met were always when Kagura herself asked for an audience with the god-king.

But she still remembered about Sesshomaru. At first Kagura had deemed her feelings for him to be just a passing childish fancy. She had buried it away, expecting for it to pass with time or maybe switch its focus, but nothing like that happened. Eventually, she had given in to her fantasies, using Kanna's powers to enjoy a peek of Sesshomaru without a risk of anyone knowing. After all, it was just some harmless fun, wasn't it? Until it wasn't harmless anymore. No matter how cynical she was towards the subject, after so much time Kagura couldn't deny to herself that this wasn't mere infatuation and wasn't for a long time. She was in love with Sesshomaru, no matter how much torment the mere thought brought her.

No matter how useless and painful it was, Kagura yearned for him: for the perfect physique of a god, for the sharp mind of a king, and for the burning coal of a man's heart hiding deep underneath all of that. And how many people besides her had ever seen it or remembered of its existence at all?

"It's unfair," Kagura muttered, "If I'd told Sesshomaru about my feelings, he probably would've just told me to stop being so foolish. And now he is going to marry someone just for the sake of kids, even when he deserves some actual real care for all his hard work. Damn."

She fell silent again, mulling over unjustness of the whole situation. It was a wonder that Sesshomaru actually bothered to check at least a couple of possible brides before setting with a wife. Kagura knew that nobles rarely married out of any warm feelings, but it's still was sad in her opinion. Threat marriages like business contract… no wonder they usually had so many lovers on the side.

And this is when a thought, a positively _brilliant_ one, appeared within Kagura's mind, shining like a beacon of hope.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, quickly sitting up, "I will speak with Sesshomaru in his language!"

It seemed so obvious now. If Kagura could present herself like a best possible wife around, then Sesshomaru, as logical as he is, will surely accept her offer. If only Kagura came up with this idea a few months earlier…

And then harsh common sense struck her, and Kagura deflated again. Even if she did her best, Sesshomaru would still most probably reject her. Who would want to marry _a witch_ , after all, or even consider to? Servants whispered that Kagura could jinx people with just a glance of the red eyes she inherited from her father – who knew what kinds of children she would bear? Who knew that demons won't snatch their souls like they did with Kanna's? And that without even mentioning her common origins or lack of real wealth…

_"Still,"_ Kagura decided resolutely, _"It can't become any worse even if I try. At least Sesshomaru won't throw me out. Because if he does, where he will find another person for my position?"_ It was a nice feeling – to be irreplaceable. It almost made up for all fear and dislike that Kagura met each time she walked down the city's streets.

xxx

For her meeting with Sesshomaru, Kagura prepared like she was going if not to war, then to a major battle at least. She took her sweet time doubting her decision in the first place, making a list of points to present to Sesshomaru and rehearsing her speech over and over again before she finally went to prepare for confronting him. It had been days.

Kagura put her clothes on like it was an armor. Everything served a purpose. Her dress was one of the best she owned, but it was simple enough to count for everyday clothing; the feather in her bun was always there, but today Kagura took special care in washing, drying and oiling her hair. She had even polished jade in her favorite earrings. As for her make-up… For her, it was a war paint; it was also one of the first things that Naraku taught her to do.

"Dear Kagura," he had said to her, when she was only a little girl trying to find her place amongst other children, "Imitation is the subtlest form of flattery, and flattery done right is easiest way to make friends you crave for so much." Kagura seen more than once how her father effortlessly charmed his way whenever he wanted to, but her more abrasive nature made her much less successful in that regard. And Kagura hated to pretend and lie.

And yet this time she didn't hesitate when painting magenta lines on her eyelids – the same ones Sesshomaru had naturally. It was popular fashion at court, but what was more important – Kagura genuinely liked how they fit her. She could only hope that Sesshomaru would like it too, even if she doubted that some eye-candy will actually affect his final decisions.

"Now, Kanna, wish me luck," Kagura muttered, looking herself over for the last time in her own, bigger than her sister's, but also more blurry, mirror.

"I wish you luck, sister," Kanna spoke in monotone. Smiling, Kagura came over and pat her head.

"Thanks. Now, show me where Sesshomaru is now, and I will go."

Without further prompting, Kanna activated her ability and Kagura peered into the magic mirror. It was the later part of the day now, and Kagura hoped to be able to catch Sesshomaru alone without too much difficulty. To her pleasure, he was sitting alone in his study, busy with paperwork. For a moment, she was tempted to just watch his clawed, long fingers move a pen instead of going to actually confront their owner.

Shaking her head, Kagura moved away from the mirror. This was her best opportunity, probably. She knew that Sesshomaru always posted a guard on the outside of his study when he worked so no one would bother him, which meant that if Kagura infiltrated through a window (that even was open a little right now!), there was no chance for anyone to interrupt her.

After telling Kanna to turn her imagery off and giving her one last quick goodbye, Kagura flew out towards her target, clenching her fists on hems of her clothes all the time. As the target window approached, her worry steadily grew, but she couldn't even afford a short breather to calm down her nerves – it wouldn't be good for Kagura if anyone noticed her abusing her power of flight like she did.

Of course, Sesshomaru turned towards her when she approached his study – Kagura doubted that anything could escape his senses, even when he was distracted like he was in the moment. Not letting Sesshomaru's narrowed eyes stop her now, Kagura opened the window wider and let herself in.

"Sorry for intrusion. I just wanted a minute of your time, your majesty," she told with false confidence, putting her flying feather, diminished in size again, back in her hair.

"What do you need, Kagura?" Sesshomaru replied, still staring her down menacingly. Even when he was sitting he seemed to be taller than her thanks to just his self-confidence alone. Kagura wished she was so sure of herself right now, because maybe then she'd be able to meet his eyes.

"I've heard that you are looking for a bride, your majesty," she spoke nonchalantly, trying to keep her twitchy fingers away from her fan. She wasn't going to let her nervousness out with that habit to hide behind her favorite accessory. Not when she was going to ask her most important question, "So I just wanted to ask that you also consider me as a candidate."

"Ridiculous," Sesshomaru replied with a scoff, turning back to his papers as if Kagura wasn't worth his attention anymore, "If you are done wasting this one time, then remove yourself from his premises."

"No!" the exclamation left Kagura's lips without her conscious decision. She thought she was ready for the rejection – but Sesshomaru didn't even let her tell her prepared speech!

When in response to her outburst Sesshomaru sharply turned to her with annoyance written clearly on his face, Kagura hurried to school her features into a mask of calm again. But all her pre-prepared words were now scattered around, making Kagura improvise in panic, afraid that a moment later Sesshomaru will remove her from his room personally.

"I can be a good wife for you, your majesty. I might not be a noblewoman, but I grew up surrounded by them. I can act as a lady when it's needed. And I will be more than just a wallflower to give you children and make you look better. I can hold my weight. See? This is a good proposition!" Kagura spoke, trying her best not to sound pleading. She held too much dignity to beg, even now – but she was also in a true despair. She also hoped against all hope that her rushed words would sound better for Sesshomaru than they did for her.

For a while he just stared at her with that piercing gaze of his, as if contemplating. Kagura could see with a corner of her eye that his face was looking much calmer now, but still held a small wrinkle between his eyebrows.

"What do you not speak of, witch?" Sesshomaru finally asked in threateningly cold tone.

"Nothing!" Kagura instantly denied with honest indignation. For a sliver of a moment she even felt her own words to be true, before another part of her brain whispered to her that there were some important things that she, indeed, wasn't telling to Sesshomaru. He was definitely too perceptive for her own good. Her insides froze with fear, and her next words came out much less assuredly, "Nothing, your majesty."

"Don't lie to this Sesshomaru," he said, rising up from his chair and making a step towards Kagura. Now he was towering over her, glaring her down. Kagura's betraying mind, though, suddenly noticed that he was now just a few steps away from her, and this was the closest they stood together since what felt like an eternity. And in response, Kagura's betraying body decided so add some heat to her cheeks, even as she staggered a step away.

"It's really nothing," Kagura mumbled, turning her face away from Sesshomaru. Her composure was in shreds and her fan was against her face in a moment, "It's completely unimportant."

"This Sesshomaru decides what is important and what is not. Do not test his patience, witch," he warned. The threat itself wasn't as scary as a forward movement of his body that implied readiness for another step forward. Kagura knew that she won't be able to not break down a little if he actually made it. There was also no way for him to tear a complete truth out of her.

"You also deserve some real c-care," she mumbled so quietly, that words melted and mixed together into incomprehensible gibberish.

"Louder, witch," Sesshomaru prompted, actually making that another step towards her.

It took all of Kagura's willpower to not make stagger away from him again. Or maybe even towards him. Instead, she tried her best to hold her ground and at least sink with some dignity left.

"You deserve some real care for your work," she said louder and clearer. Her eyes were glued to the floor. "One that only a…"

"A?" Sesshomaru prompted.  
  
  


"…a loving wife could give!" Kagura finally exclaimed in one breath, closing her eyes shut as if it would spare her the shame. It was such a stupid thing to say to Sesshomaru – but an honest one.

"Is that why you decided to come to this Sesshomaru with that… _proposition_?" he asked incredulously in response. Kagura almost winced from his tone, feeling pain piercing her heart. Did he really believe this idea and her reasons for it to be so stupid? The thought made her suddenly angry.

"Ugh! I just thought that I might as well try!" Kagura cried out, throwing her hands up. She gave up at this point, but that somehow gave her strength to stay straighter and look back at Sesshomaru without shame or fear, "It's not like my chances could be any lower than they were before now!"

"Indeed," he noted calmly, making Kagura wish to punch him in his perfect abs out of sheer frustration. Instead, she just snapped her fan shut and hid it away. There was nothing to hide anymore, after all. And no reasons to stay there any longer.

"This Sesshomaru hadn't allowed you to leave yet," the voice stopped Kagura's hand just as it approached the feather in her bun.

"What? Weren't you busy?" she said, as she sharply turned back to its owner and scowled, waiting for another word of mockery.

"It's hard to believe that you truly have tender feelings for this one when you glare at him like that," Sesshomaru said with a slight narrowing of his eyebrow. His eyes were as cold as ever, but Kagura could see by the line of his mouth that he wasn't angry – just contemplating something. "And yet, smells don't lie."

Kagura blushed at that statement, completely mortified. Her anger was gone as quickly as it appeared, but to her terror, Sesshomaru wasn't in hurry to speak up again. She didn’t know what to say, or do, or even think. A moment earlier she was at least sure how everything went, but now she was left hanging again.

As the seconds ticked by, though, her surety was steadily returned until Kagura's head hanged in disappointment again. Whatever Sesshomaru was thinking about was doubtfully anything good for her, and Kagura felt like fleeing from the result of these thoughts. Sadly for her, she was temporarily bound to this room.

"I knew this sounds just stupid to you," Kagura said bitterly, turning her head away from Sesshomaru, "Just forget it."

"Not stupid. Just perplexing," Sesshomaru replied in nonchalant tone. He gave Kagura one last, long stare before turning away from her to sit back at his deck. "You can have your chance, Kagura, but go away now, and do spare me your foolishness in the future."

Unable to contain neither her surprised gasp nor her delighted grin, Kagura thanked all the gods for their generosity towards her today and with a jump out of the window did just as was asked from her. As she flew through the air without any concrete destination, her heart was bursting from happiness and determination to not let this opportunity to slip by no matter the cost.


	2. As you make your bed

"And now entering, lord Inuyasha of the Moon, the First General of Tsukiake, and his wife, priestess Kikyo of the Moon!" the herald announced as the two people entered the throne room.

Kagome had never seen anyone like them before. The two were an exotic and beautiful sight together. Lord Inuyasha had a full head of shiny white hair – not grey, like an old man, but gleaming snow-white – and big yellow eyes that reminded Kagome of a cat. At the same time, his wife bore contrastingly-dark hair, unassuming brown eyes and, Kagome dare say, an uncanny resemblance to herself even despite the paleness of the skin that Kagome didn't had.

She wondered if Inuyasha really carried a blood of a god in his veins, and if gods even actually existed. The teachings of the Prophet said that it was foolish to worship them when you could spend this time working, and yet people of Tsukiake did this all the same. And if their kings were blessed by these deities, were they right to do it, then? Or was it just some kind of a trick to fool people, some black sorcery or a strange mutation? Inuyasha certainly looked very real to her. There was some sort of intangible aura of power around him, a presence, that could've been just a part of Kagome's imagination and yet felt very much real and… god-like, for the lack of better terms.

But as much as Kagome was curious to appearance of her father's guests, she was much more curious about why they came. Tsukiake was too far away from Higurashi kingdom to send its general there personally for something unimportant, even if it was currently a time of peace. This interest of her was exactly the reason why Kagome asked her father to greet their guests together. Her brother, of course, wished to keep them company as well, but was refused – he had his lessons to attend.

Everyone exchanged pleasantries – lord Inuyasha a bit gruffly, Kikyo with grace, Kagome's father with his usual cheer. This was where the formal dance usually continued for a while, to Kagome's boredom, but today she was blessed with a person of military mentality who cut straight to the business.

"Your majesty," Inuyasha began, throwing a glance at Kagome. He did this a lot today, but she chalked it down to the shock of her resemblance to Kikyo. The coincidence unnerved her a little too. "I don't wanna to drag this out, so am gonna be short. My brother asked me to look up for some girls that could make good brides for him, and your eldest seems to be just it. On his behalf, I want to invite her to his castle so he could decide if he wants to marry her or someone else."

Kagome inhaled sharply, willing herself not to speak yet. The rule that stated that a woman shouldn't speak ahead of men was just as outrageous and sadly _normal_ as Inuyasha's invitation. With a corner of her eye she noticed how Kikyo visibly cringed at her husband words, but it seemed that she wasn't going to give him tonguelashing in front of the monarch of another country. Later, though…

But Kagome's father, of course, took it all in stride, smiling and joking. She wasn't even surprised. The princess crossed her hands on her chest and glowered first at Inuyasha, and then at her dad with twice the force when he actually considered the idea! Thankfully, he didn't gave his agreement just yet before asking his guests to stay for a few days so he could think about it, but Kagome felt resentful anyway for the rest of the short meeting and even afterwards as everyone dispersed with their separate duties.

She knew that she was steadily approaching the age where women were given a title of an old maiden. So what? It was better to be an old maiden than to be stuck for her whole life as a trophy wife of some ugly old pig. Even the marriage of her own parents wasn't the best one. Oh, Kagome was loved by both her father and her mother greatly even if she was a girl, but eventually she grew old enough to realize that no loving couple will act so formally with each other all the time or sleep in separate rooms.

Maybe Kagome should just become a nun if her dad was really going to be serious with her wedding this time.

Next day, it turned out that he was.

"Kagome, you are going there. It's just inappropriate for a woman to be without a husband for as long as you are," her dad said to Kagome after a lunch, "You should at least let lord Sesshomaru to look at you. He might still send you home afterwards. He is described as the most beautiful man on earth – you will probably fall in love with him anyway! Just look at his younger brother for an example."

"And what if I won't like him and he _doesn't_ send me home, dad?" Kagome replied with a glower, "Do you expect for me to agree to become his wife then? Just like that?"

"Well, at the very least I expect you to not speak to him like that, young lady!" her father admonished strictly, "For all your education is worth, you know how profitable an alliance between our kingdoms will be."

"So it's all about politics, huh?" Kagome drawled out, narrowing her eyes and thinning her lips, "That's just another reason to not go!"

"Well, you are going anyway, because I already told lord Inuyasha that you are. Consider this a fieldtrip, if you wish," her father said, putting an end to the conversation before vacating the room completely. Kagome was left to stay in her shock, clenching for her heart with her palms and trying to understand how her own father could hurt her like this.

Was it too late to become a nun?

xxx

"I am sorry to set ya up like that, princess," Inuyasha said to Kagome when he and his wife were preparing to leave for their own country. Kagome only came to see them off to have another opportunity to glower at Inuyasha, but was met with a surprisingly guilty look, "Didn't wanna to hurt ya like that. You're obviously not happy. I just was hoping to match my royal ass of a brother with someone who could actually stand up to him, even if it's only until he sends ya home. He cares about his politics-shmolitics too much to really do anything to ya, no matter how much you piss him off. So, could you maybe chew his ear off instead of mine, uh? He totally deserves to be taught a lesson for once in his life!"

"Or she could not," Kikyo inserted, throwing an icy look at Inuyasha, who cringed fearfully, before turning to Kagome with a reserved smile, "Please forgive us if circumstances are unfortunate, lady Kagome, but I truly hope that this all will be for the best. While lord Sesshomaru may seem cold at the first glance, he is a good person and I am sure he will be a great husband for anyone lucky enough."

Kagome's immediate anger at the couple dimmed a little at that. It was true that it was Sesshomaru who sent Inuyasha and Kikyo to hunt for brides in the first place, so he _was_ a root of all evil in some sense. But it _were_ Inuyasha and Kikyo who picked Kagome specifically, so they were at fault too. Still, Kagome wasn't a person to hold grudges for too long. And she definitely wasn't going to antagonize a ruler of another kingdom for no real reason.

xxx

"Now, I don't care if you are a god-king or anything, but know that I am only here because my father made me come!" Kagome exclaimed. She was positively fuming at this point, and all the fault for this fell on the royal bastard before her, "And, no matter what he or you might say, if I will not want to marry you, then there will be no wedding!"

Some part of Kagome's mind, more rational one, reminded her that at least part of the blame, if not all of it, was misplaced. It wasn't Sesshomaru's fault that his envoys decided that Kagome could be a great wife to him. It wasn't his fault that autumn rains turned her journey to his palace into a horrible two weeks long crawl through dirt and mud. And it certainly wasn't his fault that on her way to his throne room Kagome managed trip on her own skirt and scrape her knees and palms on stone floor. No, that was because she rarely dressed up like she was forced to today, and by her own handmaids, no less. She felt like a walking cabbage in all these layers.

And this was exactly how Sesshomaru eyed her from his place on his throne. With furrowed eyebrows and narrowed eyes, as if he was examining some particularly strange but unpleasant oddity. No matter how angry Kagome was at the moment, she couldn’t help a shiver that run down her spine in reaction to this look. Sesshomaru had a gift to appear majestic and intimidating on every portrait of him, but he was much more impressive in person.

His facial markings, metallic-white hair and animalistic yellow eyes could be explained by tattoos, dye and some strange birth defect, and even his long claws could've been fake. Yet, standing just a ten steps away from him, Kagome felt with her own skin an invisible aura of power that Sesshomaru emanated. Maybe it was just a force of his personality, and yet Kagome couldn't help but believe right now all the words about his divine lineage that she often heard, but never put close to her heart before. It was the same aura that Inuyasha had, but much stronger. This one was even harder to dismiss as just fruit of her imagination. Kagome wondered if it had same origins.

"How dare you, wench, speak to his majesty in such manner?!" an angry, high-pitched voice was heard from Sesshomaru's retainer, a very short (a dwarf, almost) and full of self-importance man in his forties that Kagome disliked even before he called her a wench, "You can't just…"

"Silence, Jaken," Sesshomaru interrupted his servant's rant, making him freeze with open mouth at his place left of the royal throne, and glared at Kagome, "Do not think, princess, that your parentage will save you from this Sesshomaru's wrath if you will continue to insult him in such fashion."

Kagome huffed and folded her arms on her chest. While now she felt a bit ashamed for taking her anger out on (mostly) innocent person, she still couldn't help but scowl right back at him. She couldn't stand pompous people like Sesshomaru. Perhaps Inuyasha was right when he told her that his older brother deserved to be taught a lesson.

"Sorry, your majesty," Kagome singsonged with a false innocence and a strained grin. She was taught to not be rude, especially when it was a matter of politics, but right now she had very little desire to be polite, "Don't worry, I will be out of your hair as soon as possible."

These words were a complete and utter lie.

Yes, Kagome wasn't a type to hold a grudge, but even her anger at him alone was enough to decide that Inuyasha's earlier words about teaching Sesshomaru a lesson held some merit at them. It was clear to Kagome that whatever kindness was in his heart, it was buried way too deep inside to be reached without establishing a mine on it first. He really _did_ deserve to be taught a small lesson, and while Kagome didn't know anything about another bride candidate besides her name – Juuta Rin it was, if she remembered right – but, she believed that it would've been to her benefit too to teach Sesshomaru a bit of humility.

So instead of, as Kagome promised, staying out of Sesshomaru's hair, she deliberately searched for an opportunity to meet up with him – which turned out to be a very hard thing to do when he himself didn’t wish for it. He was a busy man, and what time he didn’t spend on governing his state he didn't waste on any events that Kagome could get an invite for. And while she admitted that Sesshomaru's dedication and sense of duty were admirable qualities, Kagome still disliked his general holier-than-thou attitude enough to not be deterred from searching out for ways to meet and bother him.

It took her a day, but eventually Kagome got a general feel of Sesshomaru's schedule from servants. They all worshiped him like a true god, but, despite Kagome's first appearance in the palace, were quite inclined to share information with her. Of course, only after she told some maid with a bleeding heart a false story of how her former ignorance of Sesshomaru's greatness was cured and how she wished to apologize and start everything over – if only she could find him. Because at every formal request of meeting Sesshomaru just replied with "later", to Kagome's annoyance.

It was him who invited her to his palace in the first place!

But now Kagome knew from a well-intentioned guard that Sesshomaru spent an hour every early morning in his personal training hall, sharpening his sword skills either alone or with Inuyasha, since everyone else, apparently, weren't even close to a challenge to him. Not only it was a great opportunity to catch him – even if Inuyasha would be in there, he will be on her side – but now Kagome also wanted to test by herself if he was that great of a swordsman. Her own main skill was archery – something that was more appropriate for a woman – but she dared to say that she was a pretty good fencer as well.

With directions given, Kagome found Sesshomaru's training hall without any difficulties. Nobody stood in her way – only servants and guards were around this early, and all of them minded their business. Fortunately for Kagome, Sesshomaru didn’t even have personal guards to guard him from unwanted visitors or enemies there – for the lack of need, she was told.

As Kagome approached the simple wooden door to the room, she paused for a moment, hesitating. What she was going to do was a breech in protocol from her side. And what she was going to do afterwards would be even a bigger breach. Was Sesshomaru's future wrath worth it? Were Kagome's actions justified? _"Of course they are,"_ Kagome reminded herself, pushing the door open, _"Even Inuyasha agrees_. _"_

The sight that met her in the next moment made Kagome freeze on the spot again, but now not out of hesitation. For a few long seconds Kagome just stood enthralled, her mind drawing a complete blank, while her eyes explored the scene before her against her own will. At least, her conscious will, that is.

Sesshomaru, the same person Kagome was looking for, stood in the middle of spacious hall looking straight at her as if he was waiting for her appearance. A small frown on his face showed his displeasure. A sword was held in his hand, lowered to the ground. The only piece of clothing he wore were wide pants – even his feet were bare. Though, his feet weren't the place that Kagome was looking at.

She seen many men in her lifetime, and many bared torsos – of servants in the heat of summer, of soldiers training without armor – but most of them weren't that great to look at. These men rarely took baths and usually sprouted forests of hair literally everywhere, which hid most of the muscle they had to show even if it was present at all and not hidden under a layer of fat and scars.

Sesshomaru certainly didn't have any of those faults. His physique was lean and taut, with lines of muscle easily seen under his pale skin. Whatever body hair he had – which wasn't that much – was just as silver as that on his head. Magenta lines, that matched ones on his face, were drawn on his wrists. Some sweat glistened on Sesshomaru's chest and forehead, indicating that he was straining himself not too long ago, but instead of being gross and appalling, it only made him look more… attractive.

Shaking her head and trying to chase her blush away by a sheer force of will, Kagome hurriedly threw thoughts like this out of her head. She came here to annoy Sesshomaru, not to ogle him! She was _not_ going to marry him even if he was the most handsome man she had ever seen, so what was the point? Personality was more important than a body anyway!

"If you have finished staring, princess, you might tell why you decided to interrupt this Sesshomaru," he said. There was a barely noticeable smirk on his face, and it was enough to clear Kagome's thoughts with a wave of just anger.

"I was under impression that you invited me in your palace to get to know me better, your majesty, but for now you had only been avoiding me," Kagome said with a polite smile, making a step into the training hall and closing the door behind her, "And since I wasn't going to let my journey here to be wasted completely, I decided to at least satisfy my own curiosity. I want to know if you are really that great with the sword as people say."

"How bold, princess," Sesshomaru spoke icily. Kagome could imagine his glare, but her own eyes at the moment were turned from him to the weapon rack near a wall even as he continued to speak, "And how forgetful. Didn't you promise to not be a bother for this Sesshomaru?"

Kagome shrugged. She didn’t have anything better to say, since in this particular case Sesshomaru was completely right. Still, she wasn’t going to be deterred. Not when she had already prepared by wearing pants and thick leather vest and gloves for protection today instead of more appropriate for her status dress or anything that could constrict her movements.

"I am sure a short spar will not be too much for you, your majesty," she replied, moving in wide circle around him towards several wooden swords that lay on display. With a corner of her eye Kagome saw Sesshomaru turning to follow her.

"Yes, short it will be," he snorted with disdain, "Even if you were trained in swordplay, are you really that ignorant to believe yourself to be a match for this Sesshomaru, princess?"

"No harm in trying, isn't it?" Kagome said cheerfully, picking one of the wooden swords and taking another to give it to Sesshomaru.

He scoffed, but accepted it and put his own sword in the sheath on his waist. Even with a quick glance Kagome could tell that his weapon was expensive and well-cared for.

Without much more words, they stood few steps away from each other with weapons ready and stances taken. Kagome took deep, even breaths, carefully watching for Sesshomaru's movements. His stance was just as well executed as her own, and his eyes peered at her with attention. Nobody made any signals, but it was clear that the fight had already begun, and the question was only in who was going to act first.

It was Sesshomaru. Without warning, without waiting, he lunged forward with a downwards slash of his wooden sword. His movements were so fast that even with the several steps of distance that he needed to traverse first, Kagome barely had time to raise her own sword in defense. And when Sesshomaru's strike landed on it with a loud clank of wood, the force behind it reverberated in Kagome's bones and numbed her fingers so hard that she almost dropped her weapon right that instant.

It was only the first attack, but she already knew that there was no way she was going to win against Sesshomaru. Not when he not only possessed a great technique, but also was this fast and strong – she'd even say inhumanly so. Still, Kagome was determined to do her best. There was no way that she'd gave up so soon!

For what felt like an hour, but was probably a minute at most, Kagome was in full defense. Sesshomaru didn't give her any indulgences, attacking without any noticeable care for her wellbeing. At the same time she did what she could to dodge, deflect and block his attacks. Over and over again she barely avoided what would've been a very painful hit, constantly dancing on a verge of complete loss.

Finally, her hurting hands gave up on Kagome after another blocked strike, and her sword fell from her completely unresponsive palms to the floor. At that moment, she could see a wicked glint in Sesshomaru's wide eyes when he slashed with his sword again like it was a real one, targeting her unprotected neck as if he wanted to behead her, or at the very least, crush her trachea.

Feeling like the time suddenly slowed, Kagome made a smooth step back. At this moment, she was sure that Sesshomaru was going to kill her, no matter what Inuyasha might have said before, and there was nothing she would've liked to do right now more than to put as much distance between herself and Sesshomaru's cruel gaze as it was possible.

Just when the wooden sword passed only a finger width away from Kagome's neck, she felt something strongly pull on her leg. For a moment, a slight panic and a sudden weightlessness enveloped her, before Kagome, already imbalanced by her narrow dodge, fell on her back, barely managing to group her body up to protect her head from an intimate meeting with the wooden floor.

"So, princess, was your hurt worth the try? I hope you will not start crying over your bruises now," Sesshomaru asked nonchalantly from his position above her. A tip of his sword barely touched Kagome's nose, clearly showing him as a victor and distracting her from his face.

"You tripped me!" she cried out indignantly and swatted Sesshomaru's weapon away with a forearm to sit up. Her hands felt like she had spent several hours slapping rocks with her bare palms, "That was a cheap move!"

"You lost when you dropped your weapon. It doesn't matter what happened afterwards," Sesshomaru stated hauntingly.

"This logic is stupid," Kagome grumbled, inspecting her palms and wrists. They looked a bit better than they felt – it seemed that she managed to avoid any cracks in bone or dislocations, though she wasn't a proper physician. Now she just needed a cold bandage and don't move her fingers for a day. Not that she could at the moment – they hurt way too much for that.

She stood up, trying to fix her wrinkled clothes out of habit only to wince and abandon the idea, just like the one of putting her wooden sword back on its place. Sesshomaru still looked as handsome and pristine as he did when Kagome only entered the training room – which meant that she needed to concentrate on how angry he made her feel to not drool at the drops of moisture that were slowly travelling between his pectorals and down to his belly button.

She shook her head, throwing away dirty thoughts. _"Remember, Kagome, he might really be the most beautiful man in the world, but his soul is bad, bad, bad!"_

"You may say so, but you were much more foolish in trying to challenge this Sesshomaru," the damn demon said with a smirk, "Is it so hard for you to accept his greatness just because your Prophet forbids what you call 'idolatry'?"

"Great person is kind, just and merciful, divine blood or no," Kagome replied with a glower, "And you, _your majesty_ , are just a cruel, self-assured snob! I wonder how nobody else notices this."

While Kagome was too angry to actually think twice about what she was speaking before it sprung out of her mouth, she still had enough presence of mind to realize afterwards that she just greatly insulted Sesshomaru (again), and if she knew anything about him, is that he will probably get angry at her for that. But that was her goal anyway, wasn't it? Standing under his piercing glare, Kagome wasn't so sure anymore.

"This Sesshomaru is only cruel to those who deserve it, princess," Sesshomaru said. His pale lips stretched into a sinister smile. "And he already warned you to beware his wrath. But if you wish to continue to cause it, this Sesshomaru will indeed take pleasure in measuring your punishment."

Kagome felt shiver travelling up her spine. No, she was sure now – Sesshomaru, no matter how good of a ruler he was, was actually a closet sadist. Inuyasha sent her to tug at tiger's whiskers, and the steel cage around it turned out to be made out of straw. This was probably her last chance to turn around and really stop bothering the beast… But Kagome wouldn't have been herself if she had let her fear to stop her from doing what she believed to be right.

"You can try," she told back boldly and stood straighter. She wasn't going to cover in fear – it's Sesshomaru who was going to go down!

"Very well," Sesshomaru replied with a slight incline of his head. He wasn't smiling anymore, but he wasn't glowering either, "Then we will meet again."

Promising herself that she was only taking a short reprieve to rest and plan, Kagome took this as her queue to leave.

xxx

The royal physician, a kind old woman named Kaede, spend what felt like half an hour poking and probing Kagome's bruises before confirming that all bones were whole and prescribing a cold compress, a cooling balm and doing as little of movements with her hands as possible at least until the swelling goes down. Thankfully for the princess, Kaede didn’t ask any questions about where bruises came from, even if it was clear that she was surprised to see them.

With her hands temporarily unusable, Kagome spent the whole day plotting and talking with servants. Ones that were aware of her plan to speak with Sesshomaru were quite confused to see Kagome's state, and to keep their good graces Kagome lied about origins of her injuries, claiming that she just badly fell from stairs. Thankfully, they seemed to believe her and continued to share information about this and that.

During her rest, Kagome became completely convinced that she wasn't just imagining things. Sesshomaru might have been a good ruler, but he didn’t even try to hide his sadistic tendencies from her; he stated them almost in plain words! Like he had no shame and no fear that someone would know. And while first could have come only from his unbound pride, second was probably because of his unique position. Kagome was sure that with how devoted his people were to him, no matter what dirty things she told about Sesshomaru, nobody would believe her.

And normally, she wouldn't have spoken about them anyway. But this time it wasn't just her business. Kagome was quite sure that there was a high chance that in future Sesshomaru will take out his cruel desires on people closest to him and most inclined to silently obey – like his future wife. And since there was only one candidate besides herself, and she wasn't going to be Sesshomaru's wife ever, it was Kagome's duty to at least warn another woman about the dangers. Especially since, as far as Kagome knew from servants around, Rin was raised in best traditions of worshiping Sesshomaru like a true god.

_"First thing tomorrow,"_ Kagome said to herself, stretching out on her bed. With this many things to think about, time passed much quicker than she thought it would, but still much slower than she wished it to – it was only a middle of a day right now, and she already felt boneless from her bored apathy. _"I just hope that she will at least think about my words."_

And Kagome still had half of the day ahead…


	3. All are winners in the war

"I still can't believe you might become a wife of the god-king himself, Rin-Rin" Natsuko breathed out with a grin and a shake of her head, "I am so happy for you!"

"I still can't believe it myself, Natsuko," Rin replied with a giggle, "I feel like I am in a dream. Any minute now clouds will turn into hedgehogs!"

"Well, this one," Natsuko pointed out with a finger, "looks a little bit like a hedgehog already, don't you think?"

Rin raised her head up to the blue meadow of the sky where cloudy sheep were pasturing. Narrowing her eyes to escape a blaze of the sun, she looked at the mentioned cloud in search of needles or a pointy nose, at the same time enjoying the light breeze on her face and smells of freshly cut grass from gardens below the balcony where Rin and her sister sat.

"It is," Rin agreed after a moment and grinned, turning to Natsuko again, "Now I just hope to never wake up!"

"I hope you won't," Natsuko nodded. Her previous happy expression disappeared from her face, switching with a solemn frown. "I hope that his majesty won't send you away after all."

"It will be fine, Natsuko," Rin replied with a serene smile, "It's his choice. I am overjoyed to just be invited to his palace. And I am sure that even if he won't marry me, father will have no problem finding a good husband for me afterwards. And for you too. Mother told me a dozen of times about all the good publicity this brings."

"Still," Natsuko shook her head, "Still. You deserve the best, Rin-Rin. And, I swear to gods, I will miss you! My last sister leaves our family nest…"

"I will miss you too, Natsuko, and I will miss our hugs," Rin said, rising up from her chair to go around the tea table between her and her current goal, "So I am going to give you a whole month worth of them now!"

With these words she lunged at her sister, who barely managed to rise up in time to not be tackled down from her chair by exuberant Rin. Then, of course, lots of hugs proceeded, which eventually turned into a tickle fight that left both girls lying disheveled and breathless on the stone tiles of the balcony floor.

For a moment, a great longing to just stay with her sister and not go anywhere sparkled in Rin's heart. She had four older sisters, with Natsuko being the youngest of them and the only one who wasn't married off yet. One by one Rin had to watch all of them move in with their spouses, emptying her family home bit by bit. She didn't want to leave Natsuko alone. Rin also didn't want to be left alone herself, but it was a small price to pay for an opportunity that was presented to her. It was something that was expected of her anyway.

"I should go before carriage leaves without me," Rin said ruefully, finally breaking the stretched silence and standing up, "Goodbye, Natsuko."

Her sister never stopped smiling. She, of course, understood.

xxx

To Rin's immense excitement, instead of living in her parents' city mansion, she was given a privilege to be a guest in the royal palace itself, while even her mother was only given visiting rights. There were very little other people that were given a similar honor, especially right now – Rin leaned very quickly that besides king Sesshomaru himself, only other people to live in the palace since the death of his parents were his brother with his wife, all kinds of servants, and princess from Higurashi kingdom that was going to arrive soon.

All in all, in comparison to the capital itself, the palace was a very quiet place. No social events were held by Sesshomaru or his family, and people only came in the palace to work or petition for something. It was a great contrast to ebullient life with her parents, who always hosted some kind of ball or a dinner, and when didn't – took their daughters and went to someone else's events; all in hope for someone to get interested in Rin or any of her sisters. These events were only fun when Rin managed to escape her mother's ever watchful eyes. She liked the quiet much more.

And just in her first day of stay, Rin got to see the god-king himself! It wasn't the first time she actually saw him – he sometimes blessed mass prayers in the capital's great temple with his divine presence and on few of those occasions Rin was in there to witness it – but it was the first time she saw him so close. Besides few steps from Sesshomaru's throne to the Rin herself there was nothing to divide them.

Being so near him had filled Rin's heart with so much happiness that it felt like bursting, and only a great fear of embarrassing herself, and by connection, the god-king, had made Rin to remember her etiquette lessons and move, bow and speak with grace, even if words were not just polite greetings, but her true feelings.

"I am so thankful to you for an opportunity to be in your presence, your majesty," Rin had said, "Even if you decide to not take me as a wife, I will cherish those moments forever."

The god-king hadn't said a word to her in response, letting his retainer to inform Rin about her future arrangements, but she had believed herself to be blessed more than enough already. She hadn't been sure she wasn't going to do something stupid and mortifying (like actually faint) if she had actually heard his voice too. She had really hoped that she was going to acclimatize herself better to his presence by the time of their next meeting.

Since that meeting, though, Rin hadn't seen even a glimpse of him. It was a bit sad, but she wasn't going to doubt Sesshomaru's judgment on when to meet with her, especially when it was told to her beforehand that any of their future outings together would be arranged in advance. Especially when her mother expressed her dissatisfaction already and much more often than Rin found tolerable.

She, of course, visited Rin every day, expecting reports about her progress in building any relations with Sesshomaru and giving advice on how to making them progress in desirable direction faster. And every day Rin needed to gather all her patience to listen and reply over and over how nothing happened yet, and then listen to endless lectures, most of which she had heard before.

There were also rumors. Her mother was all too happy to retell to Rin all the news that were flying around the capital, with the most important of it being the arrival of princess Kagome. It happened on the second day of Rin's stay in the palace. Part of her was curious to about the other candidate, but it still didn't made Rin any more pleased to hear about her from mother's gossip.

Rin's mother had only bad words for Kagome. In her opinion the foreign princess was an uncultured heathen and a tomboy, and her kind had no business being anywhere even near his divine majesty. Rin didn’t know about how much of that was true, but she was sure that if it all was, Kagome would've never been invited to the palace. Her mother was certain that Kagome was going to be sent away very soon, but Rin was confident that she was wrong. Listening to all the badmouthing was even more maddening than to lectures, and yet Rin couldn't run away. This was her mother, after all. No matter how much Rin wished to be away from the woman, she was too indebted to her to just escape. After all, if not for her, Rin wouldn't even been alive, not to mention fed and clothed. It was this same reason that kept Rin from telling her thoughts about Kagome to her mother aloud.

But when Rin's mother eventually grew tired and bored herself, she left Rin alone. So her evenings she spent much more pleasantly and productively. While she hadn't found in herself enough bravery to meet with Kagome despite the morbid curiosity that motivated Rin to look at her (most probably much superior) competition, she wasn't sitting on her hands and doing nothing. Besides just exploring the palace and its elaborate architecture, Rin was working on a piece of embroidery to present to Sesshomaru when he will eventually meet with her again. She always liked to gift people with embroideries of her favorite flowers, but there was never a more important gift for Rin to make than this one, and she poured her soul into its threads.

xxx

"And don't forget, Rin, to act like a proper lady you were raised to be! No walking on grass, no speaking out of turn and no daydreaming when someone is talking, do you hear me? It would be disastrous if your manners were less than impeccable!" Rin's mother lectured, pacing along the room, all the while maids quickly and professionally covered Rin in layers of silks, velvet and cosmetic powders – all in the name of beauty.

"Yes, mother," Rin replied automatically. Her thoughts were anywhere but on her mother at the moment, because just in a couple of hours she was going to meet with Sesshomaru again! She wasn't going to say that two days of waiting that she mostly spent alone were a waste – no, she was happy to have some alone time for a change. She even managed to finisher making her humble gift to the god-king! Her embroidery was just a small picture of moonflowers on an indigo silk handkerchief, but Rin was excited to be able to give it to him, and even dared to hope that he would be pleased by it.

"Do you listen to me, Rin? What I had just said? Pay attention!" mother stopped in her steps, landing her sharp gaze on Rin. "Gods, I can't believe that of all people lord Inuyasha decided to pick you. I guess that at least your face is worth something," she muttered.

Rin pursed her lips in response, to the obvious displeasure of the maid who was just going to paint them with bright red dye, but didn't say anything. It wasn't like her mother was wrong, after all. It was a true miracle to be chosen to maybe be Sesshomaru's future wife, and Rin definitely didn't feel deserving of the honor. The least she could do is to do her best to be a finest possible lady and woman for Sesshomaru, all the while being honest about the flaws of her character in which she so liked to indulge together with her sisters.

It was only after another course of lectures and a long procedure of making a pretty hairdo out of Rin's hair that she was finally freed to go towards the meeting point – with an entourage of a handmaiden, of course. The woman was old, experienced, and served personally to Rin's mother – Rin knew for sure that she would later tell her mother everything that was done and said on her outing word by word.

When Rin reached her venue in the palace gardens, Sesshomaru was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't that surprising – she was a bit ahead of time – but it didn’t do anything to diminish amount of butterflies in her stomach. She was sure that there were more of them then in the entire garden, this how anxious Rin was. She did her best to hiding it on her way there, but if she was going to wait for Sesshomaru to appear, she needed some distraction.

To Rin's luck, the gardens had more than enough of them. She took an opportunity to relish in calming smells and sights of the wonderful place. These gardens, as Rin was aware, existed for generations, and held some plants that naturally only grew in faraway countries, and while she had already explored the place somewhat before, there was still so much to see.

_"Sometimes, though, most interesting things are also most common ones,"_ Rin mused where she was crouched on the ground. She was watching a bumblebee crawl on a petal of an exotic flower. The blossom was pretty and smelled nice, but the bumblebee was fluffy, buzzing, cute and attracted much more of her attention.

Rin could also almost feel with her back an icy glare of her entourage. Crouching near flowerbeds was definitely not dignified enough, even if Rin tried to do it as graceful as possible. Later Rin was bound to hear about it from her mother. But for now she had no care in the world – hey, her mother scolded her on the matter all the time anyway, so what difference one more time made?

A sharp gasp from behind made Rin quickly turn around. She couldn’t contain a gasp herself over whom she saw just casually standing on a paved pathway.

"Your majesty!" Rin exclaimed, hurriedly rising up and turning to him fully, only to lower herself in a bow. She was so distracted by the bumblebee that forgot not only about her nerves, but about the whole meeting – but now the jitters returned with vengeance. Her brain was a panicking mess, and for a second she just opened and closed her mouth, trying to come up with a proper polite greeting. But in the end she could only squeeze out a breathless, "Good evening!"

Her entourage had already got out of the god-king's way and behind Rin, as was proper for her to do, but now she could again feel her glare on her back. She didn't dare to actually turn her head to check if it was only her imagination or not, though, just as she didn't dare to rise from her bow yet.

"Greetings, lady Rin," Sesshomaru spoke in deep, smooth voice. Rin swallowed, shyly straightening up, but her eyes were still lowered, as it was proper, even though she was dying to have a good look at his face. What had he thought when he saw her almost sitting on the ground like a commoner? What would his judgment be after the end of this meeting? The god-king's opinion was much more important than Rin's mother.

She noticed that there were no other people behind him. No guards, no servants, not even his closest retainer. It made sense for no guards to be present – no ordinary human could be a threat to a descendant of gods anyway – but the lack of servants felt strange to Rin. Shouldn't there had been someone?..

"Leave us," Sesshomaru spoke again, turning his head a bit to the side. By a shuffle Rin heard behind her, she understood that the order was given to her entourage, but while she wasn't going to protest – not that she had any wish to – she was surprised none the less. This was a quite inappropriate thing to do, though Rin surmised that if Sesshomaru wished for it, then he had his reasons, and Rin was sure that they were good, even if she wouldn't be privy to them.

When the old woman left, Rin felt a burden falling from her shoulders. Now, no matter what happened, it was only between her and his majesty. Whatever Sesshomaru's judgment of her will be, she would be able to accept it, because it will be for her. It was all on her and her decisions, not her mother's and not her father's, and for a moment Rin felt more empowered than ever.

"Thank you, your majesty," she breathed out gratefully. She could feel a wide smile blooming on her face on its own accord. Insects in her guts stopped their erratic flying, and she felt much calmer, if still greatly excited.

Sesshomaru's eyebrows rose slowly at that, but he didn't say anything else, instead choosing to walk down the garden path, as if expecting Rin to follow even without telling her to do so. And, like it was the most natural thing in the world, Rin tailed him eagerly and wordlessly without even a littlest bit of confusion. This was the pinnacle of her whole life.

"Tell me about yourself, Rin," Sesshomaru suddenly asked, coming to a stop near a wooden gazebo. He turned on his heel, coming face to face with her.

The god-king's sudden turn of attention and his piercing gaze made Rin suddenly feel a bit hot even despite the cooling wind that was rustling tree's leaves throughout the gardens. What was she supposed to say now? She didn’t even know where to start. But even saying straight out whatever comes to her head was better than to say silent. Not when the god-king wished to know these things!

"I like trees, your majesty," Rin blurted out randomly, as her eyes darted around the place. Each next word came easier than the previous one, "And flowers. And all other plants too! Even just plain grass – I like to just walk on it barefooted when my mother isn't there to stop me. And I like to make embroideries of all those plants. Oh, how could I forget! I made one for you, your majesty. I hope you will like it!"

With these words Rin produced the carefully folded embroidered handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it out to Sesshomaru with a deep polite bow. The position, with both of her hands reached out and her head lowered down, wasn't letting Rin to see Sesshomaru's reaction, and anticipation was killing her. Would he be pleased? Or was it too simple for the god-king? Rin barely managed to not bite her lip.

Was she imagining it, or was Sesshomaru not in a hurry to take the handkerchief from her? Was he planning on refusing it? Did Rin's gift just show him something bad about her nature? Just as her thoughts turned to how much exactly she was innately imperfect person (in other words, making a list of her flaws), Rin noticed that the handkerchief was gone from her outstretched hands.

"Hm. How long had you spent working on it?" Sesshomaru asked just as she quickly straightened up and looked at him, carefully perusing the item he was holding in his thin fingers.

"For two days, your majesty. I had just finished it as you called for me," Rin said quietly, clutching the hands that held the handkerchief before to her chest like it was some kind of treasure. Sesshomaru's touch was feather-light, but Rin was almost sure that he grazed her with his claws just now. Her greatest regret right now was the fact that she hadn't seen it with her eyes.

"Impressive," Sesshomaru said, turning away and moving into the gazebo. His tone was as even as ever, but his words made Rin feel giddy with happiness, "This Sesshomaru will accept the gift with pleasure."

"Thank you, your majesty!" Rin exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear, and for a few seconds skipped after him in a childish manner that would've made her mother clutch to her heart, before remembering what she was taught and slowing to a more slow and ladylike gait.

Inside of the gazebo there was a table where a small tea set and a chess board were already awaiting their arrival. Moving with his usual unearthly grace, Sesshomaru sat on one of the two elegant wicker chairs and gestured to Rin at another. With this silent permission to sit in his presence, she proceeded to take the appointed space, before setting with pouring the prepared beforehand by someone tea for the both of them.

"Do you know how to play?" Sesshomaru asked, pointing with his claw at the chess board.

"No, your majesty. I was told that this is a game for men," Rin replied regretfully, shaking her head. Her hands moved almost automatically – serving table for two was something that she had been taught to do until the knowledge had settled in her very bones. Very soon each of them had a cup full of hot, steaming tea in front of them.

Sesshomaru hummed at that, narrowing his eyes at the board. It was clear that he was intending to play with her, and Rin felt horrible to crush his plans with her inability.

"Would've you liked to learn, Rin?" he suddenly asked. Rin blinked in surprise.

"Yes, your majesty!" she nodded eagerly. She never before had much interest in board games of any kind, but if the god-king wished to have an opponent for a game of chess, then Rin wanted to make her best to become one. She was sure that there was someone in the palace or in her family mansion who could teach her.

But then, to her surprise, Sesshomaru himself began explain the rules. While in hindsight his intention was obvious from the get-go, at first Rin was surprised that he deigned to teach her himself. Still, she wasn't going to complain – quite the opposite – even if the matter of chess was a complicated one for her mind.

She quickly remembered how figures moved and interacted, but the strategy itself was a much harder thing to understand. It felt like hours had passed (thought it was certainly way less than that, as they didn't even finished their tea yet), but Rin still was very far from being even close to being an opponent to Sesshomaru. She was sure that he was if not the best, then one of the best players around – how could he not?

Still, all the failures were discouraging. After learning from Sesshomaru that the game of chess represented a real battlefield, Rin felt a bit sad about all those imaginary troopers dying over and over so she could became a bit better in the game; especially after she gave them all names and backstories in her mind. It was at this point that Sesshomaru noticed that Rin's tactical decisions from just bad became completely illogical.

The reason behind it wasn't something that Rin would've wanted to tell many people. It was silly, after all, from a perspective of a grown up woman, wasn't it? But with Sesshomaru, Rin felt it wrong to hide anything, no matter how much she was afraid of judgment, especially his. Especially when she resolved herself to not hide her faults from him even before their meeting began.

"Kazoko and Ryota are childhood friends," Rin explained a bit shyly, pointing at two chess pieces, "So of course Kazoko would want to save Ryota when he is in danger, even if it goes against the orders from his general."

"You named your chess pieces?" Sesshomaru asked with raised eyebrows. After Rin nodded slightly and blushed, he hummed thoughtfully. She waited with bated breath for him to decide on his reaction and her fate, but instead of immediate reply Sesshomaru just moved his bishop, putting the "Ryota" in danger from the angle Rin hadn't noticed before.

"Now his friend is going to die anyway, and there is nothing Kazoko could do," he said, "What's going to happen next?"

Rin's eyes opened wide in surprise as she looked at Sesshomaru who was smirking cruelly. It was such heartless move on his part, but at the same time it was as if he was taking his part in her game… one that of a villain – very appropriate, since he was playing black pieces.

"Your majesty, that was evil," Rin blurted out, not being able to keep herself in check, and immediately hid her mouth in her palms in terror. She couldn't believe she said that! It was so out of her position to judge his moves, no matter what they were! She couldn't even begin her apologies, because her tongue refused to work; as if some part of her brain turned it off before Rin could say something even worse.

Instead of reprimanding her, though, or striking her down for her insolence, or _anything_ , actually, Sesshomaru just smirked wider. For some reason, it turned Rin's face from white from fear into red from mortification.

"Such is war," he said, "Maybe this will motivate you to think harder on your tactics."

Well, it certainly did – as soon as Rin managed to calm down again. Their game after that became less about winning and more about drama. At Sesshomaru's insistence, Rin explained with every move what had happened with the characters on board. As soon as she showed him even a hint of her personal preference for one piece or another, he instantly targeted it with his own pieces, making her brain almost boil in her head with all her attempts to save them, which failed more often than not.

But, despite all the tragedy on the imaginary battleground, Rin had never felt happier. It was obvious that Sesshomaru himself drew a great pleasure from what he was doing, and no matter how _evil_ those actions were (which she couldn't help but say aloud from time to time, becoming bolder and bolder each time these comments were taken in stride), Rin couldn’t help but feel immensely good from being able to bring those emotions to him. Each time his lips creased into a smirk her heart began to beat in her ribcage like a mad woodpecker.

At the end of the day, Rin's troops were completely crushed. People left the battlefield dragging bodies of their fallen comrades with them, while the leader of the invaders smirked in pleasure. A mass funeral will be arranged to honor those who died in protection of their country from merciless occupants who beheaded their queen and took their king prisoner. It was a great joy to Rin that this all was just a story, a game, and there were no wars between Tsukiake and any other countries since Sesshomaru's father reign.

"You are the most interesting chess player that this one had ever met," Sesshomaru said in serious and even tone, rising from their shared table. Their tea was drunk and refilled twice by quiet servants, and a plate of snacks that was brought to quench the couple's hunger was long empty by this time. Sesshomaru's eyes held sparks of what could've been humor. It was hard to tell if he was complimenting Rin or laughing at her.

It was easier to assume that it was second, and yet Rin still blushed. This felt almost unreal. Rin never expected her meeting with the god-king to be like it was. She thought he would either quickly be bored of her, or soon realized how inadequate in comparison to him Rin was and would want to have no business with her.

When she bid her embarrassed goodbyes to Sesshomaru and returned to her quarters, Rin was so happy she felt like dancing across her bedroom instead of preparing to sleep as time of the day dictated. She spent another half an hour just swirling to a rhythm of her music box, until the excitement of the day finally caught up with Rin and she became too tired to continue. The next day Rin woke up still filling leftover giddiness from yesterday. Sesshomaru was all around her thoughts even when she followed her morning routine. Everything felt brighter with him on her mind, his presence in his palace and in Rin's head, like a guardian spirit, enveloping her in almost physical way.

And then, her mother insisted that Rin shared her breakfast with her. It was an immediate reminder about reality of things and what was expected of her – and what Rin herself could expect to hear right now. Yet, even this didn't extinguished joy in her heart, even if it put away her smile.

Of course, mother wanted to know everything that happened at Rin's and Sesshomaru's outing. The fact that he had sent her maid away made Rin's mother immediately suspicious about Sesshomaru's possible intentions with Rin, but she was sure that her mother would've been more scandalized by what had actually happened than by what she'd imagined.

Rin didn't like to lie, but telling the truth was out of the question, that was for sure. She spoke as little as possible, omitting lots of things and letting her mother to fill the blanks for herself. In the end, the woman seemed to be convinced that nothing besides a tea party for two had happened – to her visible disappointment.

"Hmph! Well, of course someone as clueless as you are will never be able to lure a man like his majesty in, even when having all the opportunities to do so. How hopeless. At least there are many people who will be glad to pick you up when his majesty will send you off," mother said in biting tone that made Rin hunch her shoulders protectively.

_"At least,"_ Rin thought much later, when her mother finally left her alone, _"she will not be able to lecture me again after I move to live with my husband, whoever that will be."_


	4. Interlude: Triple trouble

It's been two days since Rin's arrival in his palace, one day since Kagome's, and only yesterday Sesshomaru finally cleared his schedule enough to start dealing with the women whom his brother invited in Sesshomaru's live on his behalf. It wasn't that there were that many things waiting for his attention – it was just that each time Sesshomaru made a list of priorities, women always, ever since his childhood, came out last.

It were only Jaken's fearful, but persistent reminders that made Sesshomaru finally make an appointment with one of his bride candidates. He chose Rin for that – she seemed to be the most quiet and obedient one. He doubted that he will have enough nerves after several hours of reading stupid requests for lands and tax reductions to deal with the feisty Kagome. For now, though, this all was still far away.

Sesshomaru rose together with the sun. It was the quietest time of the day, and he relished in it, making full use of it to gather energy to last until the very evening. And even his marital plans were not going to make Sesshomaru break his usual routine, which started with daily hour of exercise and fencing. He decided to not invite Inuyasha to join him today. This time, Sesshomaru just wanted some silence and that special kind of concentration that only comes on the edge of the sword.

His hereditary blade, Tenseiga, gleamed in rays of sun that fell from a skylight in his dojo, when Sesshomaru gracefully and very, very slowly performed sets of attacks, blocks and dodges against an invisible opponent. Small noises surrounded him: chirping of birds outside, rustling of leaves in the wind, Sesshomaru's own movements, breathing and heartbeat. They all brought with itself a meditative state that was clear of any thought.

A set of approaching footsteps shook his trance, but didn't break it. Sesshomaru ignored it at first, assuming it to be a servant passing by, but when they came closer and closer without turning anywhere from their route, he broke out of his meditation and frowned. _"Who and why decided to bother me right now?"_ he wondered to himself, lowering his sword. Jaken, his main source of annoyances like these, was still asleep, and no other servant would dare to interrupt Sesshomaru's routine. _"If this is Inuyasha, I will beat him to the ground,"_ he thought in annoyance and made a deep breath to confirm his suspicions.

But the scent that a small draft brought to him from the corridor was definitely not Inuyasha's. It belonged to a woman, for starters. And it wasn't just as familiar as smells of people who worked or lived in the palace for a long time. No, he smelled this one only once before.

Still frowning, Sesshomaru lowered his sword and turned towards the door. He highly doubted that he will be able to beat a princess Kagome to the ground to deal with his annoyance without political repercussions; and that, in turn, only made his mood sourer. Whatever was the reason the princess came to Sesshomaru unbidden, it wasn't even the first of her slights against his person.

Inuyasha and Kikyo deserved a punishment for their poor judgment. And Kagome needed to learn her place – for only the best of her.

xxx

Staring in the open wide window, Sesshomaru asked himself what was up with women suddenly inserting themselves in his life today. Even more, he asked himself what was up with him allowing them to. It was one thing to accept Kagome's challenge (and he honestly warned her that it will end badly for her!) to be able to take out some of the frustration she caused on her without starting a war, but another completely to accept, even if only partially, Kagura's strange proposal.

Sesshomaru really didn’t expect something like that from her. As far as he was aware, she didn’t need more money than she was getting already, and knew better than try and reach power that wasn't made for her. Her father's example was a very clear one, and Kagura wouldn't be appointed to her position if there was any chance of her repeating his mistakes. Threats to the divine lineage were eradicated mercilessly.

And of course he didn't even thought about a possibility of Kagura developing some sort of tender feelings for him. Sesshomaru always kept his distance from most people, especially females, keeping their worship of him impersonal. And yet, one seemed to slip by. Maybe he shouldn't have let Kagura to follow him like she did when they were children if it led to this. After all, now Sesshomaru rarely saw her even for business matters, preferring to send and receive written messages instead; and yet her attraction (affection?) bloomed somehow anyway.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes for a moment, making a deep breath. It was probably Kagome that influenced his decision on Kagura's matter. In comparison to her, the witch seemed to be much more reasonable option, especially when Sesshomaru's brain reminded him that her magic powers were hereditary. He never found a great thirst for power in himself, but he couldn't deny that the idea of an heir with both divine blood and magic abilities was very intriguing. Sesshomaru could only guess what sort of political strength that might give him in the end; if such heir would ever be born in the first place, of course.

After all, he only gave Kagura a chance, nothing more. That still gave a room for a graceful retreat, but even that option was disgustingly distasteful in Sesshomaru's mind. No, since he told so, he was going to access her equally with other women. Now, how exactly he was going to access his candidates was another question. The minimal requirement for becoming Sesshomaru's wife was an ability to bear him an heir. But that didn’t check out any of the now three candidates.

Sesshomaru silently hoped that he will be able to come to know them all good enough to make a sure decision very soon. For now Kagome and Kagura showed themselves to be different types of bad, and while Rin seemed to be good enough just this morning, right now Sesshomaru couldn't help but be suspicious about her too. Who knew that kind of a snake pit hid behind her shiny eyes?

xxx

In the end, Sesshomaru was left pleasantly disappointed. There was nothing sinister or hidden about Rin as far as he could see, and while it would've been foolish to assume that even he could see everything hidden in hearts of other people, he didn’t feel like Rin even tried to hide anything from him. Quite the opposite – she looked completely innocent.

Rin was like a child in a woman's body. Her refreshing innocence felt like a cool breeze in a hot day. Her small, but nice gift (considering the amount of stitches on that embroidery, she must've spent most of her time in the palace working on it), her obvious admiration of him, the strange turns of her mind and imagination… It was a great fun to tease her.

Sesshomaru hoped that the chess set that he ordered to be brought to the gazebo will make their outing less awkward (it was one of the few things his late father taught him about interacting with other people), and wasn't glad to hear that Rin wasn't even taught how to play. In the end, though, she still turned out to be the most interesting of his opponents. Only other person he usually played with was Kikyo, and while smart, she lost to him much more often than she won. And she was a sore loser, which wouldn't have been a problem for Sesshomaru if it didn't lead to Kikyo always looking for a way to dodge his invitations to play.

Women – the bringers of problems and excitement into men's life. Excitement that, Sesshomaru couldn't help but admit to himself now that he got it, he needed greatly in his life. Just, probably, in somewhat smaller doses.

He really needed to make his choice quickly.


	5. Divine intervention

"I am glad to meet with you, lady Higurashi," Rin said in quiet and formal tone as the two of them strolled through a quiet corner of royal gardens, "But if I may inquire, why had you sent such an urgent invitation?"

It came only this morning, right after Rin's breakfast, with a time set, no more and no less than "as soon as possible". Rin's mother, who was present at receiving it, was outraged by rudeness of this action, but Rin accepted it in hurry, eager to escape her. Now she wondered if it was such a great idea. In front of a real princess Rin wanted to act her best like a lady she was taught to be, but it was a tiring ordeal in all aspects from the manner of speech to the gliding small steps she took.

Rin was, though, very curious about lady Higurashi in general. The princess looked somewhat unkempt, and her palms were hidden under a layer of bandages that disappeared somewhere under her long sleeves, but still moved with a surety of a queen. Her brows were furrowed slightly, creating a serious expression on her face, but when they had met at first, Higurashi smiled at Rin brightly. Considering that they were competitors, Rin hadn’t expected this attitude from the woman.

"I hope I didn't inconvenienced you, lady Juuta, but I must alert you of something important," Higurashi said seriously and bit her lip, "I should ask you not to take offence first. This may be a touchy subject."

Rin hadn't respond, instead just looking at Higurashi expectantly. Catching her gaze, the princess nodded and continued.

"I had met with his majesty god-king Sesshomaru yesterday, and the meeting made me aware of his somewhat… dangerous proclivities," Rin couldn't help but frown at these words, and Higurashi, as if expecting a protest, hurried to explain, "I don't saying this for no reason – he openly admitted them to me! Lady Juuta, his majesty is a person who enjoys bringing pain to others, and I am afraid that his wife, whoever that will be, will be incredibly vulnerable to him. I can't just let you or anyone to become a victim of this so easily."

After saying this all in one breath, Higurashi looked at Rin carefully, as if waiting for her to explode. Rin herself, in turn, was just too shocked by this offence to Sesshomaru's character to do anything besides staying still with eyes wide open and her mouth gaping. The first surprise passed quickly, though, only to switch with anger. Sesshomaru didn't need Rin's protection, but she wanted to protect him from Higurashi's unfair judgment anyway. How could the princess just say such things about him? She had no right!

"You shouldn't speak of his majesty like this," she said to Higurashi with a stern frown. There were other things that Rin wanted to voice – about how great Sesshomaru was, and how much above both of them – but the words died in her throat and she just continued to walk silently.

"I just wanted to warn you!" Higurashi exclaimed in response, folding her hands on her chest with a slight wince of pain, "He'd eat you alive if you let him!"

Rin pursed her lips, turning her eyes away from Higurashi deliberately. It was like her mother all over again – hurtful words that were supposed to be for Rin's own good. Now she just wanted to leave the princess's presence, but that would mean return to her mother. While Rin was caught in a moment of indecision, Higurashi spoke again.

"I am sorry, lady Juuta," she said in much softer tone, "It was rude of me. But it was a necessary thing to say."

Was it really? Was Rin really in danger of Sesshomaru? Her heart and mind told her 'no'. And Higurashi… Higurashi had no reasons for it, but yet she thought herself to be smarter than everyone around. Just like Rin's mother.

"It _was_ rude," Rin said in a sudden bout of anger-induced boldness, "And why do you think you are a better judge of his majesty's character than me, lady Higurashi? I had met him yesterday too."

Blushing, Higurashi looked away. Seeing her shame, Rin felt vindicated… but at the same time, sick at her stomach. It felt nice to stand for herself successfully for what felt like the first time in her life, but she never wanted to make anyone to feel bad.

"I am sorry, lady Juuta," Higurashi repeated, "You are right. It was presumptuous of me."

"It's fine," Rin replied softly, her empathy motivating her to wipe away the guilt from Higurashi's face, "Let's not be enemies."

"Yes," Higurashi nodded with a sudden grin, "If you really wish to be his majesty's wife, go for it! I am not going to be your competition anyway. Actually, if you need help with him or anything, just ask! I will be happy to assist."

"Thank you," Rin's words were shy-spoken, but her smile was just as bright as Higurashi's. The princess's sudden, but sincere support made Rin completely forget all her previous anger at the woman in favor of gratitude. She couldn't help but add, "Would… would you like to see more of the gardens?"

To Rin's happiness and relief, Higurashi eagerly agreed, giving the young woman an excuse to spend more time away from her mother. She showed the princess the best parts of the gardens that she already had an opportunity to see, and Higurashi – now just Kagome – while unfamiliar with the botanic, was an eager listener, and had a lot of her own interesting stories to tell. Their previous stressful discussion together with unnecessary formalities were forgotten in favor of cheerful banter; even Rin's shyness didn't hold for long against the princess's kind and honest disposition and natural charisma. It was something that Rin even caught herself up being slightly jealous of – though she did her best to push that feeling away.

"And there I was with his majesty yesterday," Rin mentioned with a dreamy smile when the two of them passed the small gazebo that now was her favorite place in the whole garden just for the memories attached to it, "It was so amazing!"

"My own meeting with him was terrible," Kagome complained in response, "It's like we met two completely different people... What did you two do, Rin?"

"We played chess," Rin said, closing her eyes for a moment. She could vividly imagine Sesshomaru's pleased smirk, and it filled her chest with warmth. She wondered – were her and Kagome's Sesshomaru really the same person? "And you, Kagome?"

She didn't seem eager to answer, for some reason. For a moment, Rin was sure that Kagome wasn't going to reply at all. She even opened her mouth to say the princess to forget about it, but was beaten to it.

"I challenged him to a spar," Kagome quickly blurted out. Her eyes wouldn't meet with Rin's. "And look what he did to my hands!" she exclaimed with a way too forced indignation.

Rin was speechless. Was Kagome a swordsman? Swordswoman? It was almost incomprehensible in Rin's mind, even if she had known of women who trained in the arts of war to guard important noblewomen whose husbands didn't trust male bodyguards. Though, this made up only for a half of Rin's shock. Another half was the idea of a normal human daring to challenge a being of divine ancestry to a physical contest.

"But why? No mere mortal is a match for him!" Rin said, throwing her hands out in confusion and agitation. Was it possible that Kagome was just unaware of this?.. But surely she was told at least that much before coming to Tsukiake, right?

"I was just stupid, okay? I was really asking for it," Kagome huffed, folding her hands on her chest only to wince and straighten them out again. "But that didn’t mean that his majesty needed to act like he did. He could've been gentle."

Rin eyed Kagome's bandaged hands. She had no idea what was hiding beneath the cloth, and no idea of how these wounds came to be. Did Sesshomaru actually beaten Kagome's hands? Was there really some truth in her words to Rin earlier? Rin didn't want to really consider it, but truth was truth, wasn't it?

"He was hitting with his sword so hard, that even thought I blocked all the strikes, the impact left my hands all bruised," the princess explained, catching Rin's eye, "It's actually quite common for swordsmen, especially ones who rely heavily on blocking in the battle. I was lucky to not break my wrists. But that doesn’t mean that it couldn't or shouldn't have been avoided! Especially in a spar."

That gave Rin some food for thought. She stayed silent, thinking heavily about the situation. She tried to imagine Kagome, the defiant, head-strong princess, coming up to Sesshomaru and challenging him to a fight. And there would be no way for her to win it. And yet, Sesshomaru accepted anyway. Was he indulging Kagome, or just looking for his own amusement? The princess seemed to think the latter. Rin didn’t know much about Sesshomaru personally, but he wasn't a person with a reputation for indulging people for no reasons.

It was hard to connect such negative qualities like the sadism that Kagome mentioned to Sesshomaru's image, perfect in Rin's eye. She frowned, thinking hard. She couldn't help but remember their own meeting, and her own words to him. Rin called Sesshomaru's actions evil. She considered them to be harmless teasing then, though, and her own words weren't entirely serious… But was it really just that? What if Kagome was right? What then?

"I think… I think I know what you are talking about, Kagome," Rin noted melancholically. She stopped in her unhurried steps and put a palm of her hand onto a smooth wood of the gazebo's walls. Her eyes closed, letting her think through her feelings.

"What do you mean, Rin?" Kagome asked with a worry and concern in her voice. "You said he was great to you, wasn't he?"

Rin nodded. He was. There was no better feeling in her life than to see Sesshomaru smile _because of_ _her_. Even if it was because of her torments, no matter how minute and small or grand and prolonged they were…

"If it brings his majesty joy, I would gladly suffer," Rin whispered the last of her thoughts aloud. Her own life meant nothing before the god-king's, after all. To be useful to him, no matter how, was the biggest blessing she could ever have.

"Huh? What did you just said, Rin?" Kagome asked, leaning closer.

"Nothing important," Rin replied, opening her eyes and grinning at the princess. "You just made me remember something great."

"Really? What it was?" she said, curving her eyebrows in curiosity. "Was it about his majesty?"

"It was," Rin nodded, moving away from the gazebo to continue on their stroll, "I just remembered how he beat me up in chess!"

xxx

Her mother wasn't happy to see Rin return from her walk as late as she did – just in time for a lunch. As a result, a clatter of cutlery and sounds of the two of them eating were completely muted by her mother's angry reprimands. And they hadn't stopped even when the food was finished, continuing on and on and on.

"You shouldn't spend so much time in the company of this heathen! Only gods know how greatly she had poisoned you with her barbarism while you were gone!" Rin's mother exclaimed, pacing around the lounge with unveiled frustration.

Rin only nodded meekly. She wished to be anywhere but there, but even if she had an excuse to go out, she knew that her mother won't let her go until she says everything she wanted to unless something really drastic happened. _"Like an earthquake,"_ Rin prayed, _"Please, gods, send me an earthquake!"_

An appearance of a shocked-looking servant made her mother stop in the middle of another angry tirade, and Rin's eyes instantly travelled at him. She wondered if this was the response to her prayers.

"His majesty the god-king wishes to speak with the young lady Juuta, mistress," the servant said with a bow when Rin's mother snapped at him, asking what this all was about. "H-he is waiting for her… just outside."

Rin gasped in surprise. Her mother, no less astonished, looked to the Rin and back to the nervous flunkey in visible bewilderment.

"Now?" she asked. When the man nodded, she turned to Rin again. "But… But…"

In her mind Rin fervently thanked both the gods and Sesshomaru at the same time for the miraculous intervention. She stood up from her seat on a chair resolutely. If she could escape her mother again now, she would bother about everything else later.

"I shouldn't make his majesty wait, mother," she said quietly, quickly moving towards the exit. "Goodbye."

"Rin, where are you going like that? And alone!" her mother tried to stop her, but Rin had no intention to even slow down. Quickening her steps almost to a run, she left the lounge and moved through the parlor of her suit towards the entrance door, hearing hurrying steps behind her but not daring to turn back.

Sesshomaru, indeed, waited for Rin just outside. His casual, natural beauty dashed Rin for a moment, making her blush embarrassedly and remember that she wasn't dressed just as well as she was yesterday, and her hair was done much simpler. What was he doing, coming to get her like this?

"Your majesty! This is such a surprise to see you… I am afraid that Rin isn't that prepared to meet with you, your majesty," Rin's mother said with a bow, hurriedly coming up to her. "If you could wait for only a half an hour, she'd be much more presentable!"

Kicked out of her reverie by her mother's voice, Rin hurriedly bowed as well, stuttering her greetings. As she rose back, she caught Sesshomaru nodding almost imperceptibly at her and blushed again, feeling an improper smile stretching her lips against her own will.

"Lady Rin," he greeted, before turning his eyes to her mother and narrowing them coldly, "lady Juuta. If your dream of this Sesshomaru taking your daughter as his wife will come true, then he would see her in much less presentable form eventually."

Rin blushed even deeper at the implication, while her mother just opened and closed her mouth like a fish before returning some of her self-control.

"Y-yes, of course, your majesty!" she said and laughed awkwardly. "W-well, good luck to you, my dear," she added, patting Rin on her head.

She almost missed the action, being way too preoccupied by steaming of her ears. The concept of anything even remotely sexually related was so far from her, that she had only remote understanding of the mechanics of it all, and even the idea of Sesshomaru being naked felt like something out of this world. _"But he needs to take baths sometimes, does he not? And surely he doesn't sleep in his mantle…"_ a part of Rin's mind told her, which only made her even more mortified. Since when her mind even had parts that were so dirty?

Still, when Sesshomaru turned to leave with only a curt goodbye to her mother, Rin followed after him without even realizing what she was doing until they were already in a corridor and walking somewhere. This was where her conscious thoughts caught up to her.

"Your majesty!" she exclaimed. She was going to add something else to this, but nothing could leave her mouth. Her head was a big jumbled mess, and coherent sentences didn't seem to be able to form in there.

"What is it?" Sesshomaru turned to eye Rin expectantly and she blushed again.

"I… We… Uh," she swallowed, feeling even more nervous under his heavy stare. "May I inquire your majesty about where we are going?"

"You may not," was Sesshomaru short and cold response. Not waiting for Rin's reaction, he turned away, leaving her to follow blindly.

The answer definitely wasn't what Rin hoped for, but she wasn't going to ask again. It seemed to Rin, that Sesshomaru was in a bad mood for some reason. Unbidden, Kagome's earlier warnings came to her mind, but she shook her head, willing them away. She had no need to fear him, even with these ideas planted in her head. Instead, Rin set to walk patiently to their destination and try to be the least annoying to Sesshomaru's senses she could be – which meant that she stayed silent and did her best to not fall too far behind him despite his quick gait.

They travelled far from the guest wing of the palace. Rin wasn't well aware of what laid at that part of the building, except that her presence wasn't encouraged there before. But when Sesshomaru led her through corridors decorated with vases full of flowers and elaborate fretworks, no guard – of which there were noticeably more – or servant did more than eye them from the corners of their eyes.

Finally, Sesshomaru led them inside one of the doors. It led to a suit of rooms, not entirely dissimilar in its planning to the one Rin stayed in, and at first she was confused about where she was, and even more about why she was there. The lack of knowledge was killing her, but Rin did her best to at least not make it too obvious. It was only when Sesshomaru brought her to a spacious lounge and sat to rest at overflowing with cushions couch that a mortifying understanding dawned on her.

These were _Sesshomaru's_ rooms!

Rin stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the lounge, both because she had nowhere to go anymore and because she never felt more awkward in her life. She had no rights to be in this place! At least not in her current status of an unmarried young woman.

Rin wondered what was going on in Sesshomaru's head to bring her there. It was hard to tell. The only hints of emotions on his face were slightly narrowed eyes and a crease between his brows. Rin would've probably needed to spend half of her life to learn how to read omens like these; at least this is how much time oracles spend to learn how to understand the will of gods. Sesshomaru's buttercup eyes were so unreadable, and yet cold and distant, that Rin couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart. It felt like she had disappointed him somehow – the worst thing she could ever do.

Then Sesshomaru's face smoothed out as he closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again, there were sparkles of life in them. But Rin could've sworn that it was a very dangerous life. Like a bunch of lions. Or sharks. Or even a wolverine!

"You are strangely silent, Rin," Sesshomaru noted in a cool tone. "Don't you have any questions anymore?"

"I d-didn't wish to disturb you needlessly, your majesty, when you are in a bad mood," Rin stuttered, hanging her head low. "But if you wished for me to talk, I am very-very sorry for misunderstanding."

For a long while, a silence reigned. At some point, Rin dared to look up to search for hints at Sesshomaru's face, but it was still just as unreadable.

"And you were not afraid," he stated. There was no doubt nor in his wording, nor in his tone.

"Why would I be?" Rin asked confusedly and raised her head up.

"Indeed," Sesshomaru snorted. His voice was harsh when he spoke, "Would have you been if there was some other man in this Sesshomaru's place? A person you had only meet twice? Alone with you in their room?"

This was a strange line of questions. Still, Rin thought hard about the answer. She tried to imagine the situation in her head. There were many men who met Sesshomaru's description, nobles that she was introduced to by her parents as a marriage candidate. Rin could still remember disturbingly well looks that some of these men were sending at her.

"Maybe," Rin said unsurely to patiently waiting for her answer Sesshomaru, "But you aren't any other man, your majesty!"

"And what's the difference, Rin? If anything, this one is much more dangerous. There is not a smallest chance for you to resist, should he wish to do something… unsavory with you," Sesshomaru asked again, rising from his seat in one smooth motion. Now he was again looking down at Rin, slowly approaching her with a gait of a cat stalking a mouse.

Rin felt enthralled by his gaze, like a rabbit in front of a snake, except that she had no desire to run away even if she broke free from this trance. She almost felt out of her body, this how surreal the situation was. Was Sesshomaru really threatening her? Did he brought her to his room only to, just like Kagome warned Rin, do something bad to her? It should've been scary. It definitely would've been, if it was anyone else in Sesshomaru's place.

Instead, Rin couldn't help but smile happily.

"Then I would be glad to be of use to you, your majesty."

She saw Sesshomaru stopping in his tracks. For a moment, he just studied her with widely open eyes, before closing them and letting out a long breath.

"You may sit if you wish, Rin" he spoke as he turned back towards his previous seat on the couch.

For the first time since she entered this room, Rin had an opportunity and the presence of mind to look around. The lounge itself was spacious, but not overly so. Its walls were draped with white and blue silk, creating an illusion of more space, and its floor was covered in a thick, dark carpet. There were several other pieces of furniture besides the couch, all just as cozy-looking: a couple of draped in cloth and full of pillows chairs that stood near a low tea table and a tall cabinet, contents of which were a curious mystery.

After a moment of thought, Rin sat on a chair closest to Sesshomaru. His behavior today was the strangest one, but she still felt drawn to him like a sunflower to the sun. And besides that, now that Sesshomaru sat back, reclining on his couch, Rin could only see weariness on his features instead of whatever danger lurked behind them earlier.

"There are people, who rule over so many, that they forget that they themselves are still below this Sesshomaru," he spoke, staring at the ceiling, when Rin settled in her place. "Some only need a reminder of their position, but some just don't seem to possess enough reason in them to ever comprehend it. It is the most tedious and irritating to interact with them, and yet still necessary."

Rin listened with a rapt attention. She guessed that Sesshomaru was explaining the reason for his bad mood today. But what was Rin's own place in this story?

"This Sesshomaru usually spars with Inuyasha afterwards to disperse his anger, but this one's unreliable brother seems to have left for another one of his escapades today," Sesshomaru said and snorted in disdain, "So this one decided to bring you there to keep him company for a while instead. He admits now… He shouldn't have done that."

"Don't say this, your majesty!" Rin immediately protested. Now that Sesshomaru seemed to be much more relaxed, she relaxed more as well, and her words run freer. "You saved me! If you didn't come when you came, my mother would have been still lecturing me!"

Straightening in his seat, Sesshomaru looked at Rin with curiosity and some amusement. "Indeed? What a cruel fate," he said with slightly raised brows. "What about?"

"She was angry at me about spending time with lady Higurashi. She dislikes her a lot," Rin admitted, lowering her gaze and fumbling with her thumbs. She was unsure what Sesshomaru himself would think about his bride candidates spending time together, not that it was prohibited.

"And what you herself think about the princess?"

"She is so great!" Rin exclaimed with a smile, remembering her earlier meeting. Even the worst parts of it in the light of knowing Kagome better were completely justifiable. "She is kind and knows a lot about horses. She told me that she raised her personal mare since she was just a foal! I've seen foals before – they are so cute with their thin legs!"

"This is a popular practice. This Sesshomaru had given a foal to care for and train by his father as well. It's supposed to teach discipline and empathy. The steed's name is Ah-Un," Sesshomaru noted thoughtfully, before looking at Rin with a piercing gaze, as if looking for something in her head. "Tell this one, how did you and the princess met?"

"She invited me to talk," Rin replied easily, before slowing down. She didn’t wish to hide anything from Sesshomaru, but saying some things not just aloud, but right to his face, felt wrong, and she shifted in her seat, looking to the side. "She wanted to warn me… about you, your majesty. She told that you are dangerous," she told quietly, before adding fervently, "But please, don't think badly about her because of this! She was trying to do a good thing, she just didn’t know about, well… Everything," Rin finished lamely, making an encompassing gesture with her hand.

Sesshomaru snorted. "This one could only imagine," he said with a hint of humor in his voice. Then, his eyes narrowed and his tone again became as serious as ever. He leaned forward in his seat. "But the princess is right. This Sesshomaru _is_ dangerous, Rin. And did she tell you why exactly?"

Rin nodded timidly. "She told that you enjoy… bringing pain to others," she almost whispered, sneaking glances at Sesshomaru's unreadable face. She felt nauseous telling him such things, whether or not she believed them to be true. Though, she felt just as bad because she _did_ now, even if it still felt unreal.

"And she is right about that as well," Sesshomaru said in response. Rin could see him studying her carefully. She hadn't expected him to say something like this, even though Kagome also said that Sesshomaru didn’t hide his preferences from her. But she understood. He was warning her from himself. It was really kind of him, especially since he _needed_ to get a wife, and better sooner than later. It could only complicate his search for one.

"Your majesty…" Rin began with a heartfelt smile that slowly grew into a full grin, "Don't worry. It's alright!"

Sesshomaru looked carefully at her for another long moment, before rising from his seat. Rin trailed him with her eyes, still smiling, as he came towards her. It was then that he did unthinkable – his hand came up slowly, until it carefully cupped Rin's cheek.

She could feel the touch of sharp claws on her face, and the warmth of Sesshomaru's hand on her skin, but it was all dimmed by the wild beating of her heart. Looking into his warm eyes, Rin could barely believe he really just touched her, just like this. She was probably still dreaming with the same dream that started when prince Inuyasha with his wife came to her parents' abode.

"You are… unique, Rin," Sesshomaru said. For another second his hand stayed where it was, before it slowly moved away. Rin blinked in confusion. But before she could say anything, Sesshomaru made a step back, so quickly that his flowing hair created a slowly falling trail in the air.

"This one should return to his duties soon," he said, walking up to the mysterious cabinet and opening its doors wide. When he got a chessboard from inside and turned with it to Rin, there was a playful smirk on his face. "But before that, he and you have time for a game of chess."


	6. My alchemical romance

After yesterday, her usual routine of work that Kagura was left to again felt almost torturous. She wanted to fly out, to pursue the chance that was given to her, to see Sesshomaru in person instead of through a mirror, but knew better than to provoke him like that again. He wasn't a forgiving person. Once was a miracle already.

And so, her tolerance to visitors was thinner than ever. Not that Kagura had ever acted pleasantly with these of her clients that actually dared to come to her personally, but today even the dumbest of them seemed to pick up on her mood and flee from her tower quickly. After a late lunchtime Kagura felt assured enough that nobody else was going to appear today, and since her other time-sensitive duties were finished for now, decided to just relax on her balcony with a cup of tea. It was supposed to sooth her nerves.

But then, as it always happens in moments like these, Kagura's small reverie was interrupted. A doorbell rang shrilly, announcing a new visitor, and for a moment the witch considered just ignoring it. After a second set of rings, though, the annoying sound made her instead considering blowing whoever was pulling the string away with a focused tornado.

Feeling angry enough to grit her teeth, Kagura stormed through her suit of rooms to the lobby and threw the entrance door open to look at her visitor.

It came out to be a woman, fairly short and well-dressed, with a head covered in wavy dark hair and big brown eyes that were wide open in unhidden excitement. Her lips, free of make-up, were stretched into a joyful grin that didn’t bode well with Kagura. It was also a surprise to see an unfamiliar face in the palace. Kagura thought she knew all local nobles already… though, now that she remembered, there was a couple of completely new additions.

"Hello, lady Kagura! I can't believe I had actually met someone like you! Oh, how rude of me to not introduce myself; my name is Higurashi Kagome, nice to meet you!" the woman chirped happily. With each word she told Kagura's frown deepened.

If it was a surprise for her to see someone unfamiliar at her door, it was a shock to see no one else but another candidate for Sesshomaru's hand stand before her and act like… like this. Nobody acted like they were genuinely happy to see her and _this much_ , and Kagura snapped her fan open, trying to hide her sudden nervousness behind annoyance and anger.

"I know who you are, princess," Kagura almost spat, "Why are you here?"

Kagome's smile dimmed a bit, and Kagura saw her narrowing her eyes a little, but her general demeanor hadn’t changed even despite Kagura's attitude. It was perplexing.

"I've heard just today that you were a witch! I had never met a real witch before. All we have in our kingdom is some supposedly magic rock that doesn’t actually do anything. Can… can you, please, show me some of your magic? I'd be so grateful!" Kagome almost pleaded, folding her palms together in praying gesture.

Kagura scowled, battling with her desire to step back in fear of that, undoubtedly, crazy woman. Who in their right mind would be this excited about meeting a witch? Especially the one that was her competitor. Kagura knew better than anyone about how dangerous her kind was. _"If it was Naraku in my place..,"_ Kagura hurriedly shook this thought away. Naraku was gone, and she was a better person. Hell, she might even indulge the princess a little, if only to show herself that she _was_ a better person.

"Fine. Watch," Kagura said with an almost unnoticeable sigh and flicked her wrist. Her fan flew through the air and winds around followed; the action was simple and felt as natural as breathing. A powerful gust of wind flew through the corridor for a moment, tearing down hidden cobwebs and old dust and making Kagome's long wavy hair fly.

"Wow!" the princess breathed out as she fixed her disheveled hair-do. Against her own wishes, Kagura felt a glimmer of pride rising in her chest.

"Tsk. This is just a trick," she replied dismissingly, standing a bit straighter, "Now, if you are satisfied, princess, leave me to my business."

"But lady Kagura, could you please tell more about your magic? Is it true that you could jinx people with a look?" Kagome pleaded, looking fearlessly right into Kagura's narrowed eyes.

She glared back at the crazy princess. Kagura's unnaturally scarlet eyes were another legacy of her father, one that brought these stupid rumors with them; but it was the first time Kagura heard someone saying this to her face… and in such _friendly_ manner.

"No and no," Kagura replied dryly, deciding to draw a line in the sand. She didn’t need this _at all_.

With a loud slam she shut the door between her and Kagome, and then, just in case, locked it on a deadbolt. Ignoring indignant exclamations from the corridor, Kagura snapped her fan shut and tiredly moved back to her living room. _"Is another girl, Rin, just as bad?”_ she wondered to herself.

"A soul, bigger than the land, brighter than the sun," Kanna suddenly said, making Kagura turn to her in shock.

"Kanna, what?.." she exclaimed, rushing to her sister's side. Kagura could count on fingers of her one hand how many times Kanna said something without being prompted, and each time it was because of some great discomfort. Right now, Kanna seemed to be completely well as she sat in her chair near a window, but Kagura was extremely worried anyway.

"It's blazing hot enough to warm even cold empty husks like us," Kanna continued like nothing happened, clutching her mirror in her hands, "If only we could catch its reflection for ourselves, maybe it'd be enough."

"Kanna, dear, what are you speaking about?" Kagura asked almost in panic. What sort of a riddle was that?

"A soul," Kanna replied, looking up to stare blankly at Kagura who gritted her teeth in frustration over a short answer after all that completely uncharacteristic tirade.

Then, she breathed out. She wasn't going to lose her patience because of her sister, not now or ever. She was going to think her words over and do her best to fulfill Kanna's wishes, because this is what Kagura did for her.

Kagura was aware that an ability to scry with her mirror was only a part of Kanna's magic powers; just as controlling wind was only a part of Kagura's. Others, though, weren't used by sisters out of their darker nature. Kagura could control unresisting bodies – corpses or dolls – like puppets, while Kanna could move souls in and out of her mirror. It made sense that she also would also be able to sense them somehow and all this time Kagura was unaware of this because of Kanna's lack of talkativeness.

"Whose soul you are talking about?" Kagura asked, deciding to start there.

"A person you spoke with."

"You mean right now? That crazy woman?" Kagura couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. What luck it was that out of all people it was that piece of competition that attracted inexistent interest of her precious little sister? A small nod from Kanna in response made Kagura sigh.

"And what do you want from her? Do you want… to see her, maybe?" Kagura guessed. Another nod made her scrunch her face irritably. _She_ didn't want to see Kagome, but she also wasn't going to let Kanna anywhere out of their rooms alone.

Oh well, at least Kagome was probably not too far away.

xxx

As it went, she wasn't just not too far away – she was only few steps away from Kagura's door, mumbling something angrily to stone walls around. Straining her ears, Kagura caught up few unflattering words, though if "rude" was most probably about her, she wondered who "and this jerk" was.

"Hey," Kagura called out to her, unsure how to invite her in after closing a door on her like she just did, "If you still want to see my magic, you should come in."

"Really?" Kagome sharply turned to Kagura's direction, "You changed your mind? Thank you!"

"Only because my little sister wanted to meet you," Kagura replied quickly, showing excited (again) princess way inside her rooms.

"Oh, you have a sister? Cool! I have a little sibling too – a brother – but he is left with my father now," Kagome chatted as she looked around rooms that Kagura led her through. When the two of them passed the lobby and entered the living room, Kagome's eyes instantly snapped to Kanna.

"Kagome, this is Kanna. Kanna, this is Kagome. Do whatever you want with her," Kagura introduced absentmindedly, quickly looking around the living room. She never invited guests and could barely remember what she was supposed to do despite all her father's lessons. Right, a host was supposed to arrange refreshments… Did she need to bother with it at all, though?

It wasn't like Kagura's goal was to charm Kagome. Though, now that she thought about it, learning more about the woman in more comfortable environment was probably a good thing to do. In love and war both it was important to know your opponents.

"Do you want something to drink, Kagome?" Kagura finally asked.

"Tea, please," Kagome replied. Her whole attention at the moment, though, wasn't at the witch, but at her little sister instead. "Oh, Kanna, you are so cute! You look so different from Kagura, though. Like day and night, actually!" she giggled at her own joke.

Kagura took the princess's distraction as an opportunity to remember where her tea set was. She hadn't used it since… _ever_ , but was sure that it was _somewhere_. Just like the tea leaves themselves. Kagura also had all the water she needed available, thanks to the rain barrel on the roof, but heating it was another question. She moved around, storming into her storage room in search of necessary items, but could still hear the voices that were coming from half-opened door.

Kanna said something quietly, but Kagura was too far away to hear it. Kagome was louder, though.

"Your sister said that you wanted to see me," she continued. Kagura could almost imagine her wide smile, "I hope I hadn’t disappointed you too much. You probably expected to see someone majestic, like your god-king."

Kanna stayed silent, and Kagura wondered if she shouldn't return to the living room – she hadn’t felt all that good living her sister near another person without supervision. Before she get to make a decision, though, Kagura was distracted by a dangerous wobbling of a glass jar of tea leaves that she was trying to get from the top shelf where it were tucked far behind jars of more commonly used herbs.

"Um… Huh, strange. Is your mirror glowing?" Kagura heard Kagome asking, "Is that some sort of magic too?"

A warning bell ringed in Kagura's head and she fumbled with her tea jar, dropping it and catching again only centimeters from the ground. Holding it with one hand, the witch hurriedly run back to her sister.

When she opened the door fully, Kagura saw Kagome curiously looking at Kanna's mirror, which was, indeed, slightly glowing with a pinkish light. And Kanna was, for some reason, smiling – just barely. And if Kagura wasn't so worried that her sister would steal the princess's soul and they both will be sentenced to death, she'd be very happy to see it.

Then the glow stopped. Kagome turned her head to Kagura and she could see confusion written on the princess's face, but there was no indication of her losing her soul or anything. And Kanna was still smiling.

"Is something wrong, lady Kagura?" Kagome asked.

"No, no, nothing!" Kagura quickly denied. She would ask Kanna later what had happened there, but for now she was just glad to see that everyone were alive and well, "I, uh, just brought tea. Leaves."

"Maybe I should help you?" Kagome drawled out in unsure voice.

"No, you better not touch anything out there. Some of these things are dangerous," Kagura replied in hurry, "Just wait a few minutes."

Thankfully, after that Kanna hadn’t tried to do anything strange, and Kagome seemed to be not too put off by her lack of talkativeness (though Kagura noticed that Kanna spoke a bit more than usual). With that Kagura decided to dismiss the glowing mirror event from her mind for a time and concentrate on other things. She was able to more or less calmly gather cups, a small pot and an alchemic burner to heat water. Cups were made of simple lacquered clay, pot was usually used for potion brewing, and the burner seemed very out of place on ornate table in the living room, but Kagome hadn't complained at lack of splendor, instead examining everything around with curious excitement.

It was only when Kagome reached with her hand for a tea cup that Kagura noticed her bandaged palms. She wondered to herself what was hiding beneath them – some kind of injury, perhaps? When Kagura's eyes returned to Kagome's face, the princess caught her gaze with a bit embarrassed smile.

"It's just some bruises, you shouldn’t worry about them," she hurried to reassure even if she couldn’t hide a wince when she folded her fingers around her cup, and Kagura decided not to ask where she get them, "Please, could you tell me instead more about what you witches are doing for life? Could you brew love potions?" the last question was asked with already familiar sparks in Kagome's eyes.

"Ugh, no. I make potions, but I don't make any _love_ potions," Kagura scowled. This question was asked to her what felt like hundreds of times. The closes thing to 'love potion' that she had in her recipes was left to her by her father and was just a very strong aphrodisiac combined with an inhibitions-reducing component; and Kagura was forbidden from ever brewing it (and several other of Naraku's potions) by a special royal degree anyway.

"What potions do you make instead?" Kagome wondered.

"Mostly just balms for smoothing skin and aphrodisiacs for old men," Kagura replied with a huff. That part of her job was just a plain, boring routine; she much preferred to freely research new recipes. Then, Kagura's eyes caught Kagome's palms again and an idea came to her head. Another question was if it was a good one. It was probably better to leave everything as it was. Yes, Kagura was probably able to help Kagome right now, but there was a risk involved for them both, and what did it matter anyway…

Then Kagura caught a sight of Kanna's slight smile. For another silent moment the witch just watched how her little sister trailed Kagome with her eyes and her mirror, before pursing her lips in annoyance for herself. _"I am only doing this because whatever just happened made Kanna smile,"_ Kagura said to herself.

"Actually, I have something that could help you with your injuries," she remarked, nervously reaching for her fan that was lying in her sleeve, "But this salve was only tested on mice yet. There might be some unexpected side-effects. It's on your own risk if you agree to try it."

Kagome's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, before she looked down at her hands thoughtfully. Then she frowned, only to chuckle and smirk to herself a moment later. Kagura watched the princess's antics warily.

"Thank you a lot, lady Kagura! Let's do it!" Kagome exclaimed, clenching her palms into fists only to instantly unclench them with a wince and a hiss, "A healer put cold compresses and some ointment on the bruises, but I was told that they will heal for at least a week. If you could do something to shorten this time, it'd be a true miracle!"

"If something bad happens, I had warned you," Kagura reminded again, before leaving Kagome and Kanna alone to fetch the salve.

It was one of her oldest and hardest projects – a simple salve to heal wounds. All her previous prototypes went with some really bad side-effects: tumors that started to grow around the place where the salve was applied, uncontrollable growth that soon left the now giant mice weak under the weight of their own bodies, strange change in behavior and others, just as lethal or just irreversible and problematic things. This batch of salve, though, hadn't showed any side-effects besides what seemed to be a temporary weakness for almost half a year of observation. If not for the whole marriage mess, Kagura would've probably already gone to Sesshomaru for permission to test it on some prisoners already.

When Kagura returned with a small jar of salve, a sheet of paper, an inkwell and a pen, Kanna, with her mirror lying on a table nearby, was helping Kagome to unwrap her bandages and clean leftover ointment from her skin with some napkin. Beneath them her wrists were swollen and her arms tinted with purple, and Kagura couldn’t help but cringe a little on the inside. Eager to distract herself, she put the paper on the table and started to quickly write on it.

"What's this?" Kagome looked at the witch with confusion.

"A document that states that I will not be held responsible for any negative effects of applying this salve," Kagura replied, not lifting her eyes, "Kanna will be our witness."

"Uh," with a corner of her eye Kagura saw Kagome glancing at Kanna, "I am unsure about Tsukiake law, but I was under the impression that children couldn't be legal witnesses. At least in my kingdom they can't…"

"She is sixteen. She has stunted growth because of her condition," Kagura finished writing and pushed pen and paper towards Kagome, "Read and sign."

She blinked her eyes in surprise and stared at Kanna for a moment as if the girl suddenly sprouted another head, before shaking her head and looking at the document that was given to her. She finished reading it quickly (there wasn't much to read to begin with) and put her signature on it in slow, careful movements, before passing it and writing utensils to Kanna. To Kagura's surprise, her sister signed without additional prompting, even though the witch had already opened her mouth to say it.

After that was done, Kagura set to applying the salve. It required some fumbling with Kagome's sleeves, but thankfully, worst of the bruising was below her elbows and easily reachable without taking the whole dress off. After that the only thing that they needed to do was to bandage Kagome's hands again so the salve wouldn't stain anything. But as soon as Kagura stood up from her chair to look out for some clean dressings (she was almost sure she had some around), Kagome interrupted her.

"This is amazing!" she exclaimed, clenching and unclenching her fists while looking at her hands in wonder, "It healed so fast! Look, lady Kagura, Kanna, my hands are like new! I had never seen anything like that before!"

Furrowing her brows in confusion, Kagura turned back to Kagome only to open her mouth in shock. Indeed, besides the glistening layer of not yet absorbed salve, Kagome's hands looked completely healthy. All swelling and bruising was completely gone.

"This is bullshit!" Kagura said, shaking her head in disbelief, and looked at Kagome carefully, "And you feel fine? No dizziness, exhaustion, sickness or maybe itching?"

"No," Kagome shook her head with a grin, making few energetic swings with her hands, "Actually, my hands feel stronger than ever! Like they are full of power somehow. What, you were so unsure about your own salve?" she asked with a smile that clearly indicated that it was a joke.

Kagura made a step back to not be accidentally caught by a flying fist and pursed her lips in thought. The salve was only supposed to make recovery, at most, three to four times faster than normally. During her experimenting, Kagura found out that if injuries healed too fast, the body exhausted itself too much in the process and it usually led to instant starvation and dehydration. It was a real "haste makes waste" situation. And there was no way that this salve made anyone _more_ energetic or stronger than normally!

This required additional research. And preferably before Kagome sprouted some another strange side-effect, but negative this time.

"Alright, then you should go and wash your hands. And if you feel anything, _anything_ else, notify me right away," Kagura said, tapping her fingers on the table.

"I will. Thank you so much! I will repay you for it somehow!" Kagome replied with a grin. She rose from her seat, careful to not smear salve on anything.

Kagura just pursed her lips in response. _"Whatever,"_ her unspoken thought was.

xxx

After Kagome was sent away to wash off, Kagura hurried to find Sesshomaru. She dreaded what he might say about her actions, and dreaded even more how it could change his opinion of her as a possible wife, but she knew well enough that it would be much worse if she decided to hide it or even maybe tell him later.

This time, she also used normal ways of meeting with him. Instead of swooping on him from clear sky, even if it was, admittedly, much quicker to do, Kagura told Jaken that she wanted to discuss something important about one of her research projects. After that, it was Sesshomaru's decision on when to meet with her, but Kagura hoped that he won't put her off for too long. Considering that she usually left reports about her work to Jaken, she had some hopes about this. And to her pleasant surprise, she was let into Sesshomaru's study as soon as Jaken returned.

"You chose a convenient time, Kagura," Sesshomaru commented instead of greetings. He was sitting, just like at their previous meeting, at his writing table. As he spoke, he put some papers before him away and looked at Kagura, "This Sesshomaru just was thinking of finishing for today. But first – your business. This one hopes it's actually important this time."

She scowled at his mocking tone, even if her heart thumped in her chest at the sight of Sesshomaru's light smirk. Then, Kagura remembered her news and suddenly felt her throat go dry. She anxiously clutched for her fan.

"Well, if you remember my reports, your majesty, one of my projects is a salve for hastening one's body's natural restoration," she started, carefully watching Sesshomaru's face. When he nodded slightly in understanding, Kagura continued, "Latest prototype had shown itself working very well on mice. I was actually thinking for asking you for human subjects…" she trailed off.

Sesshomaru hadn’t said a word, but his piercing stare was a good enough prompting. Hiding lower half of her face behind her fan as if it was going to save her, Kagura continued.

"And today I met a volunteer who agreed to let me test the salve on her. And it worked just fine!" she hurried to add before Sesshomaru thought anything, "Though, that's the thing – it worked way _too_ fine. The salve is supposed to make you heal quickly, but not _instantly_ like it did _._ "

Kagura fell silent, waiting for Sesshomaru's reaction. For a few seconds he just looked at her with coldly narrowed eyes. They felt like longest several seconds in Kagura's life as she tried not to imagine what kind of thoughts could fly in Sesshomaru's head and how badly they could bade for her. And then, suddenly, he smirked widely, showing a fang, and Kagura held her breath in fear.

"Relax," he said, "This was between you and this volunteer. But this Sesshomaru guesses that now you wanted to ask for test subjects?"

"Y-yes," Kagura nodded, licking her lips and narrowing her eyes. The fact that Sesshomaru wasn't going to punish or even reprimand her made the witch calm enough to breath evenly, but the realization that he was just toying with her made her feel embarrassed. She hid it as best as she could behind her fan and her glare.

Of course, Sesshomaru wasn't afraid of her – instead, he just smirked wider.

"This Sesshomaru will find you someone. Is this all?" he asked calmly, as if he didn't just purposefully scared Kagura half to death.

"I just want to also mention that my volunteer was no one else but the princess Kagome," she replied. Talking about other bride candidates with Sesshomaru, even for such an unrelated to marriage matter, felt strange and uncomfortable, "She had nasty bruises on her hands for some reason, and was very excited to see them go, though she was just as excited to see my simplest wind tricks."

On that, Sesshomaru's eyes widened in rare expression of surprise. "Interesting," he said thoughtfully, "If she comes to you again, give her more of this salve, provided it indeed doesn’t have any ill effects on her."

"Alright," Kagura nodded, even if her head was full of questions. It felt like Sesshomaru knew something important about this, but in the end, the witch decided to not think about it. It would probably be better to her mental health anyway.

"Now," Sesshomaru added, standing up from his seat, "Come and spend some time with this one."

"Huh?" Kagura asked dumbly. She wasn't expecting this turn of events. "Why?"

"For its own sake," Sesshomaru replied evenly, before adding with a mocking tilt in his voice, "Why are you so surprised? Wasn't that what you wanted?"

"Well… Yes! I just wasn't expecting that to happen right now," Kagura replied, hurriedly wiping shock and blush from her face. Then, she fell quiet. She had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

A pause stretched long and longer still. Kagura didn’t know what to say to fill it. At the same time, the silence felt not only awkward, but also somewhat nostalgic. As she looked into Sesshomaru's beautiful face, Kagura couldn't help but remember their time together as children. It was simpler then. Kagura just wanted a friend and decided that only Sesshomaru was worthy of the title. Now… now, only Sesshomaru was worthy of the title of her husband. Kagura wasn’t going to obediently follow any lesser man like a wife was supposed to. It was a great thing for her that nobody pushed her to marry before that, or else she'd probably tried to became a nun. And she didn’t want to be one. Especially not when in the same room with someone so handsome…

Sesshomaru, at the same time, seemed to study Kagura in turn. She wondered what he was mulling over in his head to just stay silent like that. Was he thinking about what they would do now? Kagura wracked her own mind in search of ideas. When she had free time, she liked to read something or just fly around on her feather.

The latter idea made Kagura almost gasp in glee. She wondered why she hadn’t thought of it earlier.

"Hey!" she exclaimed with a grin, "Want to fly with me?"

"Fly?" Sesshomaru blinked, as if coming from a trance, and tilted his head to the side in visible confusion, "You are able to take passengers with you?"

"Of course! I fly with Kanna all the time," Kagura replied, chuckling a little. For some reason it was fun to see that even his perfect majesty was unaware of something that seemed so obvious to her.

"Well then," Sesshomaru said, regaining his normal composure. He came to the window and opened it wide, making thin curtains and small papers rustle on the wind and letting smells and noises from the outside into the study. Then, he looked at Kagura pointedly, and she understood it as a wordless invitation.

Not wasting any time, she climbed on a windowsill and from it hopped outside, plucking her trusty feather from her hair at the same time. After a moment of free falling it enlarged, catching Kagura in its soft embrace, and she hurried to command winds around to move her up, until she was hovering just outside of the window.

"Get on!" she said, offering Sesshomaru his hand like she always did to Kanna, only to afterwards realize that for him this help was probably unnecessary.

Still, after a moment's pause, he accepted it. His big, warm hand enveloped Kagura's small one, making her heart beat faster out of her own accord. His grip was strong, but mindful of his sharp claws. It only later for a few seconds, though, before he sat on Kagura's feather behind her – so close that she could feel his body heat, even if they weren't actually touching. It was the most exhilarating experience in her life, and they hadn’t even started to really fly yet.

"Hold tight!" Kagura warned Sesshomaru, reaching for her fan. She could command winds even without it, but the fan's help made it easier to do and allowed more precision. And if she was going to impress Sesshomaru, she preferred to have all the help she could.

With a flick of her wrist, Kagura's feather soared up and away from the palace's windows. Turning back for a moment, Kagura saw Sesshomaru griping for edges of the feather and looking down with fascination that could be clearly seen in his eyes even if the rest of his face was as blank as ever. Seeing him trying to not gawk like a peasant at the scenery beneath them made Kagura feel empowered over her ability to bring this to him.

For a start, Kagura made a few circles above the palace, letting Sesshomaru see it and the city around from above, before turning back to him again.

"Is there anything you'd like to see, your majesty?" she asked with a grin.

"Do you have a favorite place?" Sesshomaru asked, rising his head towards her and quickly moving his hair away from his face before returning his hand to the feather. Now that it stopped flying forward and the headwind wasn't blowing Sesshomaru's hair back, its long, web-like strands were flying all over the place thanks to the breeze that was always present this high up. Some even flew up to Kagura's face, touching it as if in a light caress before flying away again; but most of it just seemed to get into Sesshomaru's eyes and mouth to his obvious annoyance.

"I do," Kagura nodded, moving her fan a little to blow hair from Sesshomaru's face with a quick gust of wind. He noticed the gesture and nodded in silent gratitude, making Kagura feel warmth in her chest. In hurry to hide any feelings that he would be able to see on her face, she turned away from her passenger and willed her feather into flight.

The place she had in might wasn't too close, and Kagura set a fast pace. She was also glad to see that after some adjustment Sesshomaru seemed to calm down a little and even let go of one side of the feathers in favor of leaning down a little and looking at the scenery below – city, rivers, roads, fields, forests – with awe.

With their course set and flight even, Kagura relaxed in her seat a little more. Her powers protected her and her passengers from most of the headwind, her feather was a comfy one, like a soft cotton hammock, and her current company was anything she'd ever wished for it to be. She and Sesshomaru, just a few centimeters apart… What a dream it was.

Kagura half-turned to him, taking an opportunity that his distraction presented to just watch Sesshomaru from up close. All these features she had studied in Kanna's mirror over and over were now literally within her reach. In truth, here, so high above the ground that humans below them seemed to be small like ants, she had power over him. And he trusted her enough to give it to her in the first place…

Embarrassed by her feelings again, Kagura moved on habit, hiding her face behind her fan. The action, though, caused her to lose control of the air currents around for a short moment, making her feather wobble a bit in the air. In the next moment, Sesshomaru's hand was clutching for the wrist of Kagura's free one with a death grip, turning the witch half-way to him, and his other hand almost tore the side of the feather with its claws.

"What was that?" he asked. His eyes were wider than usual, and his voice was breathless, but what hit Kagura's the most was the distance – or, to be more precise, _the lack of it_ – between their faces. If not for her great practice, it would've made the task of steadying their flight again very daunting because how could Kagura concentrate on it when Sesshomaru was this close to be grasping for her for a dear life?

"C-calm down!" Kagura stammered, unsure if she was speaking to Sesshomaru or herself. She did her best to not blush, but was aware that she failed miserably, "It's just small disturbance. We won't fall."

To Kagura's internal horror, even though his face smoothed out again, and his grip on her became weaker, Sesshomaru hadn't hurried to increase the distance between them again. Instead, he made a deep inhale, all the while Kagura wondered if he was again torturing her on purpose with the bright stripes on his cheeks that attracted her attention like a beacon in a storm and with the thin, elegant line of his lips, just a movement away from her own. They creased into a smirk, making Kagura aware that she was tortured purposefully indeed, but even when she scowled at Sesshomaru angrily, neither of them moved away from each other.

"W-what are you doing?" Kagura said, trying to break the strange tension between the two of them. Under Sesshomaru's stare she suddenly felt like a rabbit in front of the hungry wolf, "Why are you so close?"

"You have any objections?" Sesshomaru asked nonchalantly, and Kagura was sure that he moved a littlest bit closer, "This one doesn't think so."

"Well, but I do! Uh," she stammered, looking down to his lips again. Was he _provoking_ her to kiss him? She wasn't going to! She was sure it was some sort of trap! She needed to escape, quick! The problem was, on a small feather amongst the clouds there was nowhere to escape. Though that realization gave Kagura a sudden idea, "You distract me from flying!"

_That_ made Sesshomaru let go of her and return to his previous seat and Kagura breathed in relief, even though a great part of her was longing for their closeness again. Instead, the witch shook her head and turned back to their course, making sure they won't fall or get lost in the sky. But even then she couldn't put Sesshomaru out of her mind. He was constantly tempting her with just his presence.

Thankfully for her, they reached their destination in a dozen more minutes of fast flight, and Kagura had something to distract her at the very least. Before and beneath them stretched a lake with its opposite shore almost reaching horizon. The sun that hung low above horizon threw molten red flares on the rippled surface of the water. On the lakeshore, a small group of kids was playing with water and sand, their voices too far away to be heard, with an older man supervising them from nearby.

"Here we are," Kagura said softly, turning her body to sit on the feather sideways, side-by-side with Sesshomaru who did the same. She willed the feather slowly move closer towards the earth, "The lake is most beautiful at sunsets and sunrises, but I like to come here in time to watch these kids play. They almost always come there when it's warm outside."

"Why?" Sesshomaru asked, turning his head towards her, "They are just children."

"I am not sure myself," Kagura shrugged. Her feather finally stopped at her favorite vantage point, where she and Sesshomaru were hidden behind the trees but were still able to watch the lakeshore almost unobstructed. "Maybe I just need more laughter in my life," she added with a snort, looking at two girls splashing each other with water.

"Hm," Sesshomaru hummed thoughtfully, "Do you wish for children of your own, Kagura?"

Kagura instantly felt heat enveloping her whole body. Part of it was embarrassment, but part came from all images of their theoretical marital life together that Kagura conjured in her mind in her days of watching Sesshomaru through a mirror and now was remembering with a vengeance. She quickly turned away from him, trying to regain enough composure to answer the question without losing all dignity.

"Hmph! I'd need to marry someone first anyway," Kagura said dismissively, carefully not looking anywhere near Sesshomaru.

"And what was stopping you?" he asked. Was Kagura imagining it, or did he just lean towards her? No, her senses were correct – their shoulders touched now, and Kagura's heart beat wildly in her chest, "This Sesshomaru wonders if the reason was somehow connected to him."

"You think too much of yourself," Kagura grumbled, but even to her the annoyance in her voice sounded like an act, "There was just no one good enough."

Sesshomaru hummed disbelievingly. His voice came from so close to Kagura's ear, that she could almost feel its vibrations move through her, causing pleasant shivers move down her spine. The tension from before was back with vengeance. Against the rational part of her own will, Kagura turned towards Sesshomaru. He looked at her with a spark of laughter in his eyes and a slight smirk on his lips. His amusement at situation made Kagura feel somehow safer. It's all was fine if it was just fun and games. It was real feelings that Kagura was always uncomfortable with…

They stayed silent like that for a while, just sitting together, watching the scenery and each other. Kagura's thoughts, though, were all on Sesshomaru. She wanted so badly to put her head on his shoulder, but didn't dare to. It was just the same when they were children… When it came to being really close, she always got afraid in the last moment; even if the rest of the time she did her best to cling to him like a leech.

What a coward she was.

Sesshomaru and Kagura watched the kids below them for a while, at some point starting a light dialogue between them. It was easy to reminiscence about the past the two of them shared together, even if – or maybe because – it didn't seem to hold that much meaning now. The two of them changed a lot since them. Grew into adults with their adult lives. Some things, though, stayed the same.

Finally, the man on the shore gathered kids together and led them towards the village. There were still a couple of hours before sunset, though, when there was a high chance to see some couple meeting in romantic atmosphere. Kagura scowled at the thought.

"We should return to the palace. It's late," Sesshomaru said, taking words from her mouth. While she didn’t wish to be away from Sesshomaru, she had no desire to stay to see some random people suck on each other faces… or worse.

"Right," Kagura nodded. Then, she smirked, remembering something else, "Jaken is probably panicking right now."

"Definitely," Sesshomaru said, smirking right back at her.


	7. All kinds of training

When Kagome and Rin finally parted ways, her stomach just began to remind Kagome about the importance of regular food intake. It was a surprise for the princess how much time she had spent with the person who was supposed to think of her as of her rival, and how pleasurable it was. _"Rin truly is a great girl,"_ Kagome concluded, feeling slightly less guilty about coming to her with her warning today. At least her motivations were good. This should count for something, shouldn't it? She sighed.

She was on her way to the palace kitchens to grab something to chew on and probably chat a bit more with cooks-in-training – three cheerful and romantic young women with whom Kagome got a friendly camaraderie from their first meeting – when she was stopped by a commotion near its front doors.

"Ya should just ditch that witch and go play with us! Some booze might be just the thing to put some hairs on your chest!" Inuyasha goaded a boy who looked no longer than fourteen years old. The prince was bending low to be on the same eye-level with him.

"Inuyasha is right, Kohaku," another person, an ordinary-looking dark-haired man in blue robes that, as far as Kagome was aware, were the uniform of local clergy or something, nodded wisely, "And I am sure you would be able to meet all kinds of pretty young girls out there. Now that, I tell you, is a real way to become man!"

"I can't do this! I am too young!" the boy exclaimed with pale face, all the while trying to squeeze between the couple and the wall towards the kitchen, "And it's my duty to attend lady Kagura! And, and I will tell big sister that you are out for it again, Miroku!"

The mention of a big sister made the dark-haired man smile sheepishly and quickly step back from Kohaku's way. "Alright, alright. No bad feelings, right, Kohaku? We are basically brothers, after all, aren't we? I was just trying to look out for you!"

Kohaku grumbled something under his nose and quickly used the opportunity to sneak past Miroku and into the kitchen. And now, with their main focus gone, he and Inuyasha finally noticed Kagome, who was waiting to see if she needed to intervene. It was good that she didn't in the end.

"Hey, Kagome!" Inuyasha greeted with surprised face. "Fancy seeing you there. What's up with you and our lord High-and-Mighty?"

Before Kagome could do anything besides waving his hand at him and opening her mouth to say something, she was interrupted by Miroku.

"Kagome? You mean, the princess Higurashi Kagome? I had heard tales about your beauty, but they were unable to encompass even a half of it! My name is Miroku, and truly, if I wasn't a happily married man, I'd asked you to become a mother of my future children," the man said in a charming tone, suddenly appearing right next to her and taking one of her hands in his. Noticing that it was bandaged, he frowned. "Oh, what happened to you, my lady? Who would've been such a brute to wound someone as pretty as you? Would you tell me about how it came to be if we went into some quite place with nice wine and plenty of snacks?"

All the while, Kagome stood, completely dumbfounded and slightly blushing over all the compliments. This was a first, honestly – this man was something special. But also definitely not something that Kagome was going to approve.

"Oi, Miroku! Cut it out, or both Sango _and_ Sesshomaru would be on you," Inuyasha warned, also coming up closer. Then, he grinned at Kagome and opened his mouth to add something else, but was interrupted.

"I don't think so," Kagome said, threateningly narrowing her eyes at that Miroku and making a step back, at the same time freeing her aching hand from his gentle hold. Then, her glare moved to Inuyasha. "And you! You basically set me up! 'He won't dare to harm you', you had said – well, _he did!_ " she cried out in anger, pointing her finger at the prince.

Now it was Inuyasha's turn to make a step back, though a moment later he squared his shoulders and put on a look of self-assurance. Meanwhile, Miroku's eyes jumped back and forth between him and Kagome in confusion.

"Well, don't blame _me_ if you provoked him too much!" Inuyasha scoffed, folding his hands on his chest.

"You… You…" Kagome seethed, clenching her fists as hard as she could. The pain this action brought to her didn’t register in her mind at the moment.

"Please, please!" Miroku suddenly interfered with his charming smile and most friendly attitude. "I am sure that none of the grievances between the two of you are so severe that they couldn't be forgotten after a shared drink and a game of cards. After all, weren't we just looking for a third person to play with, Inuyasha?"

"Che! I am sure our hissy-pissy princess wouldn't want to come with us anyway, if she is afraid of some boo-boos," Inuyasha inserted in derogatory tone, glaring back at Kagome. She noticed how his eyes flickered for a moment towards her hands.

"Well, I will show you," Kagome scoffed. "I am sure you can't even handle your drink anyway."

"So we all agreed! Isn't that wonderful?" Miroku chirped in cheerfully. "Though, if Inuyasha is still against your presence, I would be perfectly willing to accompany you on my own, lady Kagome."

"Oh, shut up!" Inuyasha's tired remark followed.

xxx

The place where Inuyasha and Miroku brought Kagome was a middle-tier tavern in the city. It wasn't big, nor was it popular, but it was clean, well-lit and patrons of it didn't spare to either of the tree more attention than a friendly nod or a wave of hand. It seemed that Kagome's companions were regulars in there. And nobody there called Inuyasha a prince.

Just as Miroku said, some drinks (and a plentiful amount of food) greatly reduced simmering tension between Kagome and Inuyasha. The princess felt much better with her stomach full, and the prince could either glare at her or eat, and preferred latter. That left Miroku enough space to launch a pleasant conversation interspersed with card tricks, in which he was quite skilled, much to Kagome's interest.

He introduced himself as a priest in the capital's great temple, and told that he and Inuyasha actually met through his wife, who was a shrine maiden in it, before she married the prince. "And then, she wasn't a maiden anymore, so she was promoted to a rank of demilune priestess," Miroku joked, making Kagome's cheeks heat a little, though she swore to herself that it was just booze. "I am sure that in several years she is going to become a full moon priestess, with her wit and other… accomplishments," he added with a leery smile, lowering his gaze to Kagome's chest until she slammed her tankard on the table angrily.

That was another thing Kagome learned about Miroku – he was a lecher. The fact that he was, according to himself, a happily married man, didn’t seem to stop him any, just like his supposedly holy occupation.

After Kagome and Miroku helped Inuyasha to clean the table from food (Kagome was absolutely, positively sure that he somehow managed to eat twice as much as the both of them at the same time), the priest set up a game of poker. The rules, while with some new to Kagome local variations, were quite familiar, and she grinned, eager to show Inuyasha her worth (and show him to not set her or anyone up like that again). It was also when the real conversation started, because Inuyasha's mouth was finally free from food to share juiciest news from the palace.

"I could barely believe what Jaken bragged to me today, but the little guy never lies like this," he said with a grin full of anticipation, after throwing an absentminded glance at his cards. It was obvious that his news were much more interesting than them, which left Kagome, to her annoyance, unable to guess how good his combination could be based on his face. "He actually told me that Sessh decided to consider Kagura as his possible wife!"

"What?" now Kagome's attention too was more on the dialogue. "Who is this Kagura?" she asked. The name was familiar – didn’t the boy from earlier mentioned her?

"She is the court witch," Miroku explained. His eyes, wide from shock, narrowed to slits when he dreamily stared into the ceiling. "Well, I must admit, I could understand this decision. Lady Kagura is certainly a beautiful woman, even if a bit cold. But maybe this was one of his reasons. I only wonder why his majesty would bother with inviting other women in the first place if he already had Kagura in mind… Not that I am against it, lady Kagome. It was certainly a blessing to be able to meet with you," he quickly added, inconspicuously moving his chair a bit closer to hers.

"A witch? A real witch? With magic and all this?" Kagome asked, dropping her cards to the table in agitation. "Really? What does she do?"

"Ah, she just brews potions mostly," Miroku waved off nonchalantly, "Though, they are quite useful. Her services are very popular amongst the local nobles, though she officially only under his majesty's authority."

"Heh, shouldn't you be more worried about competition, Kagome?" Inuyasha goaded.

" I am more concerned about the fact that if his majesty chose Kagura from the beginning, I would be at home right now!" Kagome threw another glare at Inuyasha and picked up her cards. "Are we playing or not?"

"I think, I am going to pass this round," Miroku said, throwing a sour look at his hand. "I seem to have no luck with cards today. I wonder, does that mean that I am going to have luck in love, or was I just cursed? What do you think, lady Kagome?" he added, inclining closer to her seat.

"Just cursed," she replied, moving further away from him when it finally get to her how close he was.

"Woe on me!" Miroku shook his head in exasperated sadness and continued with a mischievous smile. "Maybe it was all the talk about Kagura that did it. There is a rumor going around the city, you know, that she could jinx people with just a glance of her enchanting blood-red eyes…"

"Bullshit," Inuyasha interfered, "That was what Naraku did."

The mention of Naraku, whoever that was, put a damper on the mood over the table immediately. Kagome looked between Inuyasha and Miroku in confusion, wondering who that guy was to make them so grim that suddenly.

"Well, I am going to double the stakes," she said, trying to distract them with their game. She looked at her cards and hoped that they were good enough for that move. "Are you up to the challenge, Inuyasha?"

"Ha! You'd bet!" he threw back with a smirk, seemingly forgetting whatever just happened.

The game continued from there. Miroku won the most in the end, being shrewd as he was, but Kagome was glad more than enough to be second best – it was the easiest thing in the world to read Inuyasha's animated face. And she wasn't that much disappointed in her 'field trip' anymore. Not if she was going to find and meet a real witch, a true magic user – and now that Kagome knew about her, she definitely was going to! _"Now that was going to be some story to tell Sota when I return,"_ she giggled in her thoughts with anticipation and excitement.

xxx

Kagome still could barely believe her eyes as she clenched and unclenched her fists. Dark, angry bruises that promised pain and discomfort for another week, no less, were completely gone from her hands now, and she couldn't stop looking them over and over in awe. Kagura was really a miracle worker, despite her initial unfriendly attitude towards Kagome, and her doubts about the use of untested remedies. Kagome definitely was owing Kagura some great gift in gratitude.

Nothing bad happened to Kagome, despite whatever Kagura was worrying about! If anything, it was quite the opposite – her hands felt better than ever. Stronger, too. And it only took Kagome one accidentally broken teacup to realize that she wasn't just imagining that additional strength.

And now, while a maid hurriedly cleaned the mess, Kagome though over how powerful and lasting this power was and if there was really a possibility of other, less beneficial side effects. At the very least, Kagome needed to be careful to not break anything else. And for that, she needed to measure her strength and get used to it while it lasted.

Her tea – and dinner – both forgotten, Kagome changed into more appropriate clothes and went to the guards' training grounds. They were empty when she arrived – only chirrs of cicadas and chirping of late birds were interrupting the quiet of the footworn field. But training dummies still stood to attention, as straight and strawy as ever.

When Kagome punched one with all her current strength, her fist, covered in protective windings, went right through, sending broken straws falling to the ground. As she (with some difficulties) dislodged her hand from the broken dummy, she saw how small scrapes and splinters on unprotected part of her arm smoothed out and disappeared right before her eyes.

She looked on her fist, then on the hole in the dummy and grinned. She just knew what to do with this power, if it would last long enough. But first, she still needed to train and adjust to it. And tell Kagura about that, Kagome admitted, when she would have time for it – if only to thank her again and have another reason to meet with her little sister. Kanna was, after all, a cute child, if very strange. And not actually a child, though Kagome could still barely believe it.

Kagome practiced punches with her fists and strikes with a wooden sword until the early evening faded completely into dusk. She found out that only areas of her body that became stronger were those that were touched by Kagura's magic ointment, and often that meant that her legs and torso couldn't follow very well after the speed of her attacks. That caused Kagome to stumble more than once. Even after working on fixing that for hours, all the while ignoring whale songs of her stomach, Kagome still felt somewhat awkward with her new strength. She'd liked to train more before actually using it, but without knowing for how long it was going to last, Kagome didn’t wish to wait any more than necessary – or maybe it was just her excitement over it speaking. She just hoped that this power wasn't going to disappear in the morning, when she would have a real opportunity for using it.

xxx

"Why are you here again, princess?" Sesshomaru asked. His narrowed eyes showed his displeasure, but Kagome chose to ignore that, just like she chose to try and ignore the sight of his naked torso. Somehow, the former was much easier to do. And here she hoped to attain some tolerance for it…

"For a rematch," Kagome replied, carefully keeping her eyes glued to Sesshomaru's. She could just imagine the amusement in them if she actually went to ogle him again. No way was this going to happen!

  
He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise. "Indeed?" he said. "And this Sesshomaru thought you were smart enough to at least learn on your own mistakes. But he isn't going to discourage you…" he added with a malicious smirk.

Kagome fought an urge to shiver. She had strength! She had power! It was still there, the first thing Kagome tested after waking up! And while she still could lose – after all, she hadn't grown and trained with it from the childhood – she was going to at least show Sesshomaru something very surprising first.

"You are not unbeatable, your majesty," she told him, grabbing a training sword from the rack and moving to a starting position for a spar.

"But not by the likes of you," was Sesshomaru's reply. He too had taken a wooden weapon of his own.

For a few long seconds the training hall went still again. The moment felt so similar to the one just a couple of days ago for Kagome, that for an instance she felt like thrown into the past. Except, this wasn't the past. The history wasn't going to repeat itself… _"At the very least, I am going to land a good hit on him!"_ Kagome promised to herself.

Again, Sesshomaru charged forward first, swift as the lightning, but this time Kagome blocked his hit with relative ease. She noticed how widened his eyes at the sight, and wished she could control her speed and strength better so she could surprise him with it. Sadly, it was just not an option.

After that, Sesshomaru disengaged from the striking distance, moving slowly in circles around Kagome, who turned after him in her place. Since her legs weren't as quick as her hands right now, her best bet currently was to stay put and let Sesshomaru come at her.

"Interesting," he hummed under his nose, carefully contemplating the princess. Kagome, in turn, studied his movements, waiting for another attack. She could guess by his current attitude, that now that he was hit with something he didn’t expect, he was going to test her abilities before going for a win.

It was just as she expected. After few more seconds of perusing her, Sesshomaru charged in again. The two of them exchanged several blows, Kagome grinning all the while at the ease with which it came to her. She could tell that Sesshomaru wasn't holding back, at least any more that he was at their first spar, and yet she could hold her own against him – not just defend herself, but even launch attacks of her own. She'd even tell that the two of them fought almost equally well, though neither of them landed a hit yet. Their swords cracked and bended under the force of their attacks.

"Very interesting," Sesshomaru repeated, jumping away from Kagome again. He was smiling now too, but it was an expression that made a chill travel down her spine. There was a spark of excitement in his eyes, and Kagome wondered with a somewhat belated apprehension about what he might try to do with her now that he had a worthy opponent. She grasped her sword tighter. She doubted he was just going to let her go unharmed if he could help it.

"This new strength of yours… Did it come from Kagura's brew?" he asked, pointing with his sword at Kagome's hands, free of bandages or any wounds.

"How do you know?" she couldn't help but wonder. Did Kagura told him about their meeting? Well, it made sense since Miroku said that Kagura worked for Sesshomaru… Still, it was a bit of a damper that Sesshomaru got it so easily. Kagome pouted. She liked to see him confused and not as self-assured as he usually looked like.

"Hm," that and a smirk were Sesshomaru's only replies on Kagome's question. "You are still going to lose, princess," he added, making Kagome's pout change into a scowl.

"Well, try me!" she challenged. Sesshomaru obliged.

Kagome could feel the additional effort he put into the fight now. Well, it was good then that she also had something else in her to add to keep him at bay! Their wooden swords clashed roughly time after time. Kagome breathed heavily, but she could see that Sesshomaru was tiring as well, though how fast – that was another question. There was a shine of sweat on his skin. Kagome was glad for her trained habit of looking an opponent in the eye – other parts of Sesshomaru were certainly even more distracting now than they normally were.

Kagome raised her sword, preparing to block another strike. There was sweat in her eyes now, too, and she blinked on reflex. When her eyes opened again, she could discern that Sesshomaru's earlier attack was just a feint – but it was too late now. His sword poked Kagome's arm with power and precision. She cried out in pain, letting her sword go from that hand, only for it to be instantly knocked out from another by a second strike.

In Sesshomaru's eyes she could see a smug glee of a victor, even as he moved sword for attack again. But this time Kagome could see the mistake he did in his arrogance.

Without thinking twice about how much this went or went not against the spar's rules, Kagome dived under the raised sword and grabbed Sesshomaru's arms with her own. It didn’t stop his movements – he was stronger, that was for sure, even now – but slowed him down enough for Kagome to have time for her next move.

Then she head-butted Sesshomaru in the chin.

The click of his teeth felt like a music for Kagome's ears. A gong that heralded her victory. Well, moral victory at the very least, because she wasn't very sure that she had actually won. A hit like this would've knocked a normal man out for a few seconds, but Sesshomaru wasn't a normal man.

The force of her ramming attack made Kagome lose her balance and fall forward. At the same time, she felt Sesshomaru – and his half-naked body was now wa-ay too close for it to be appropriate, a part of her mind noted with glee – falling on his back beneath her, and for a moment felt hopeful for her success.

They landed to the floor with a loud crash. Before Kagome could react, Sesshomaru freed his hands from her weakened grasp and, dropping his sword to the side, took her into a holding grip, at the same time turning the two of them so he would be above her, pining Kagome face down to the floor.

Kagome gasped as her forehead came in a contact with wooden boards. She was now in a very uncomfortable situation, she couldn't help but note. Both of her hands were – quite painfully – held behind her back, the floor was hard, and she could feel Sesshomaru's claws piercing her skin, just as she could feel his crushing weight on her hips.

"This Sesshomaru can't deny you your tenacity, princess, though your efforts are still as hurtful to you as ever," his voice came from above and behind her.

"This time I landed a hit, one of the next ones I will win," Kagome replied. She couldn't help but grin now, even though her hands were pleading to her to do something with her position. She decided to try just that. "Now let me go!"

Sesshomaru shifted his weight on her, but didn’t seem to be in hurry to free Kagome. "How stubborn," he muttered. With alarm, Kagome realized that this time sound came from right near her ear. She could even feel Sesshomaru's warm breath on her as he spoke.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked. She wriggled, trying to wrench herself out of Sesshomaru's hold, but in response he only clenched his fists tighter on her wrists, making Kagome let out a gasp of pain when his claws pierced deeper.

"This Sesshomaru did warn you that he wasn't going to let you go with offences on his person, princess," he replied. Kagome shivered, unsure if it was from Sesshomaru's ominous tone or his proximity, and grit her teeth. "Just as he warned you about coming to see him uninvited again."

He did, but that didn’t make Kagome any less angry. The fact that Sesshomaru technically had right to do what he did, didn’t mean that his actions were any less disgusting or that she was going to let them slide. At the same time, it was not like she had many other choices but to play _his_ game, by _his_ rules or not to play at all.

_"You know, it's still an option. To give up and just avoid him until you return home,"_ a voice in her head said. _"No, now it's not!"_ Kagome replied vehemently and this was that.

While she was submerged in her small inner conflict, Sesshomaru shifted again. Kagome could feel him changing hold on her so both of her hands were pinned with only one of his, and tried to use this as an opportunity to escape. The try was futile again, to her disappointment and prolonged pain.

"Struggling now would only make this more painful for you, princess," Sesshomaru said. To Kagome's small relief, his voice was away from her again. But now that he had one hand free – what he was going to do with it? That Kagome didn’t know and it was scary.

"What's with that 'princess'? Don't I have a name, _your majesty_?" she asked, trying to hide her fear.

"Hm. Indeed. This Sesshomaru could say, that given how close and personal we are now, this would be more than appropriate, Kagome," he replied with sinister amusement in his voice. "Now, _don’t move_ ," he added in a tone that sounded chiller than the mountains' ice cups and more threatening than ever.

Kagome froze in her position, with a cheek on the floor, and bit her lip hard, trying to distract herself from whatever cruel idea of a punishment was in Sesshomaru's head. She didn’t really want to comply to his demands, ever, but right now she just couldn't help it. A more optimistic part of her mind told her that _surely_ Sesshomaru wasn't going to do anything that would make her father to start a war with Tsukiake afterwards, but another was telling her that he was possibly too crazy to care, no matter what Inuyasha thought.

She felt his hand move her hair, put into a low ponytail for convenience, to the side and pull the collar of her training tunic far down, tearing it partially and freeing the top of her back and shoulders to the air that suddenly felt way too chill for the time of the year. She jerked reflexively, a dozen of frightening scenarios coming into her head now about Sesshomaru's possible plan, before a sharp point of a claw touched her recently revealed skin, making her still in place again.

Then it pierced through, and Kagome grinded her teeth to not show this royal sadist any more of her pain. She could feel the claw moving on her skin, slowly, deliberately, leaving a burning trail behind. Kagome could tell that it wasn't really deep, but the measured speed of Sesshomaru's actions made her feel acutely every small movement he made. She wondered what the purpose of it was – besides the obvious – and when he would have enough.

After some time – it was probably short, but felt quite long – the claw retracted, but just as Kagome let out a breath of relief, it caught in her chest when, she felt the sharp point piercing her skin again nearby. She grinded her teeth with more anger than pain now.

"You are just sick!" she spat. Sesshomaru only chuckled quietly in response and Kagome decided to stay silent from now on to not give him even that satisfaction.

It was only on his third sign, that Kagome realized that Sesshomaru was writing something on her back, in relatively small, but, she'd bet, very accurate letters. She sincerely hoped that whatever he was writing was short, but it was hard to tell even what the letters were when they cut in the skin of her back. At some point, the pulsing ache just left the lines itself to spread across the whole area, making the source of it almost impossible to distinguish.

Eleven. The word that he was writing was _eleven_ letters long. When Sesshomaru had finally let her free and Kagome scrambled back on her feet, she felt like the angriest person in the universe.

"You will pay for it one day! By my hand!" she spat at him, pulling her torn collar up again. At least the holes in her arms had already started to heal, even though the blood that came from them wasn’t going to go anywhere by itself. What a walk through a palace was ahead of her.

"Bold words," Sesshomaru replied. He had a smug expression on his face as he studied her. Like that of a cat who got the cream, though this cat's cream was certainly of unusual kind. Then, his focus moved onto his own bloodied fingers, which he perused with the same level of interest. "You may go now, Kagome, unless you wish to try to defeat this one again now."

Kagome didn't. While she was still in physical condition to fight, she was certainly not mentally fit to do so in the moment. She felt shaken.

"You may ask for more of Kagura's brew if you wish. It would certainly make things more interesting," Sesshomaru added from behind her when she was almost at the door out. "But don't try to use it on your back, or this Sesshomaru would need to repeat the process all over again."

Trying not to let him see how this treat affected her, Kagome closed the door behind her with a loud bang.


	8. Interlude: No rest for the wicked

At this point, Sesshomaru realized that he had trapped himself. The more he learned about his bride candidates, the harder it was to choose any of them. He sincerely hoped that this complication was only going to be temporary. As for now, he was contemplating his options again, over and over, when he was supposed to be sleeping instead.

Rin… If before she was just the most acceptable option, now Sesshomaru had realized the depth of her devotion, and it was something that, in his opinion, shouldn't be wasted. Being on the receiving end of it, especially after everything that was said and done, was an infinitely more powerful and personal feeling than that of any devotion his other followers and worshippers could have given him before.

Sesshomaru wasn't a person for poetry, and had no pretty metaphors for that feeling. All he could say is that the warmth and pressure it created in his chest were very substantial and very pleasurable.

Kagura was simpler and more complicated at the same time. Was her love comparable to whatever Rin felt towards him? Sesshomaru couldn't tell. But he could see her desires, ones that she tried to hide behind her fan with little success. It was all written on her face, these wishes for a family with him, children and the process of making them. It was fun to tease her. She was always contradicting herself, but it was what made her interesting. Her anger and embarrassment now were just as amusing to him as they were years ago, now that Sesshomaru bothered to remember these times. And yet, all the while she held her chin high, she never disobeyed him directly, and Sesshomaru knew that she never would, be that out of love or fear.

Either way worked for him. He still was unsure of what to think about her… feelings. But it was hard to just ignore them. Sesshomaru guessed that it was just in the nature of humans to respond to emotions of others in kind.

And Kagome. Oh, Kagome. He could remember the metallic taste of her blood on his claws. He didn’t knew what compelled him to lick them at the first place, and only did it when she left his presence – it wouldn't do to disturb her too much at once – but it was a powerful feeling. Where before was mostly annoyance, now his darker desires were laying. The more, the harder she struggled, the more pleasurable it was for him to punish her and put her on her place. Beneath him.

In fact, a part of him wished to bind her to him permanently now, if only for the sake of these pleasures. To take her as his wife, to never let her leave his presence. He knew that she'd never agree without some kind of manipulation or force involved, but that same part whispered to him that the effort would be worth it. Especially since that meant that he would have all the right – a duty, in fact! – to bed her and put pain and pleasure together in more meanings than one.

It was sick, he knew – objectively. He was told that, not just by Kagome herself. He was well-taught to keep these desires in line, to only measure sufferings to those who deserved it. His father believed at first, that Sesshomaru's cruelty came from the lack of understanding of what the pain was. When it became clear that it did not, Toga put a lot of effort and lashings into teaching Sesshomaru out of his habits of torturing insects, small animals and servants that displeased him.

It worked to a measure, but Sesshomaru had never felt any shame for his affinities, even when others did. He knew he was above it just by the right of his birth. He never hid his sadism more than he hid his other emotions, which he preferred not to disclose to people who only saw him as a figure on the silver throne.

Sesshomaru let out a long sigh, burying his head deeper into his pillow as if it was going to help him to fall asleep quicker. He supposed, now that he was on this path of getting to learn his women more, there were no other ways but forward. He couldn't deny, that he would be glad seeing any of them again tomorrow. There were plans buzzing in his head now, all kinds of ideas. Give Rin some kind of a gift – she honestly deserved one – though what gift exactly? Speak with Kagura about what was wrong with the potion she gave Kagome – preferably somewhere comfortable and scenic. And would Kagome finally learn her lesson, or barge on him again without an invite? He'd be both pleased and disappointed either way… But at least he was sure that she would appear again, whether he called for her or not, and it put a smile on his face.


End file.
